


Never Leave Me

by darkotter



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: AU, Abusive Relationship, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Complete, Consensual Sex, Ghosts, M/M, Sex, Torture, Yullen, ghost story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:04:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkotter/pseuds/darkotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The house at the end of the road was haunted, according to Lavi. Dragged by their enthusiastic friend, Kanda and Lenalee go with Lavi to check it out, only to find that it IS haunted, by a twisted Victorian ghost who just can't let go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been sitting on this story for a while. This is...SORT OF beta'd. I'll get Kumi to ACTUALLY beta the second and third chapters. It's just been so long since this story has actually been FINISHED, I wanted to share it! So yes. Now I'm sharing it.   
> *I use some information about Mana and Neah we find out in several of the most recent chapters of the manga.

The house was haunted.

Or at least that’s what Lavi said. It looked like any other empty house up for sale to Kanda, and he really didn’t know why he had to be dragged along. And of course, they had to come at night. Lavi said it wouldn’t be as creepy if it was during the day, and what was the fun of a haunted house, if it wasn’t creepy and if you didn’t go at night?

Kanda didn’t care. He didn’t scare easily and he didn’t believe in haunted houses. Especially if Lavi was the one who told him about one. The loser was notorious for saying shit just to get reactions from people and Kanda didn’t want to give him any more chances.

He didn’t really have a choice this time though. Lavi had literally dragged him from his apartment to the redheads car, where Lenalee was already waiting, claiming they were going to go see a ghost. Lenalee looked skeptical as well, which made Kanda feel a little better about this whole ridiculous trip, but she just gave Kanda a look and shrugged. The Japanese man sighed loudly and slumped against his seat. He would be complaining the entire trip and Lenalee knew this. Lavi probably did too, but didn’t care.

“Are we the only ones going?” Lenalee asked.

“Only ones willing to go,” Lavi said as he drove out of the parking lot.

“What the hell do you mean _willing_? You dragged me out of my apartment!” Kanda snarled from the back seat.

“But you let me, didn’t you, Yu?” Lavi said with a grin, meeting his friend’s eye in the rear view mirror. “I _know_ you could have easily gotten away from me.”

Kanda crossed his arms and glowered for a moment at that bright green eye, before looking out the window. He recognized where they were. It was one of the nicer neighborhoods at the edge of town. Lavi drove down the lane slowly looking at addresses. “There!” he said and pointed at a mailbox beside a driveway that disappeared behind the trees, “That’s the address.” Kanda rolled his eyes as they drove up the driveway, past the For Sale sign, past the mailbox, and past the trees.

“What a beautiful house,” Lenalee said, eyes widening a little as they came upon it.

Kanda had to agree. It _was_ a beautiful house. It was a classic southern style place, painted in pale blue and white. The lawn was trimmed nicely, but it took Kanda a moment to realize that the flowerbeds butting up against the porch were, well, dead. He frowned.

It looked deserted, uninhabited, abandoned, even in the good shape it was in. Maybe it had something to do with the dead rosebushes standing brown and black in the flowerbeds, or the fact that there were no curtains in the windows.

Lavi parked the car and got out, grinning widely.

“It doesn’t _look_ haunted,” Lenalee said, glancing around the house. “It just looks empty. Are you sure it’s haunted, Lavi?” She crossed her arms and gave the redhead a look that plainly said she did not believe him for a second.

“Oh come _on_ you two—” Kanda had the same expression and Lavi had seen it. “—where’s your sense of adventure? Don’t you want to look around inside? What if it _is_ haunted?”

“Ghosts aren’t real, dipshit,” Kanda growled.

Lavi just grinned and shone a flashlight in the man’s face, causing him to glare. “We’ll see. Here.” He tossed a torch to Kanda and Lenalee then hopped up the steps towards the door. Lenalee followed, glancing at the flowerbeds as well before focusing her flashlight on the door, where Lavi had crouched down beside the lock.

“What the hell are you doing?” Kanda asked, standing beside Lenalee. He let the beam of light travel across the wall and shone it through the window. He couldn’t see much past the glare.

“The door’s locked,” Lavi said, tongue poking out between his lips in concentration. There was a small click and he stood with a grin, letting the door swing open.

“That’s how you got into my apartment!” Kanda said, eyes narrowing. “I knew I locked that damn door.”

Lavi gave another one of his grins and walked into the house. Lenalee shot a look at Kanda then shrugged her shoulders again and followed the redhead.

It smelled like dust and neglect and the floorboards creaked when they walked through the foyer. “Wow,” Lavi breathed, looking around. “Well, if I ever saw a house that had haunted written all over it, this one would be it!”

“Lavi, there aren’t any cobwebs or broken floorboards or anything like that. Where’re you even drawing this conclusion from?” Lenalee said, looking around before blinding Lavi with her flashlight for a moment.

“Look, Lenalee,” he said patiently. “Just _look_ around. I mean, doesn’t it _look_ creepy, even without it being rundown?”

“Not really,” Lenalee said, looking doubtful. Lavi gave her a quick glace before turning back around and starting down the hallway. Kanda turned in a small circle as he examined the foyer. He looked up the stairs and saw nothing but another hallway. He was sure Lavi would want to check it out once they were done looking at everything downstairs.

“I wonder if there’s anything left from the original owners,” Lavi said as they poked around the kitchen. There was nothing there but empty cabinets and bare drawers, so they moved on. “If there’s anything left here, I bet it’s in the attic or basement, right? That’s where people in horror movies find things.” He grinned and Kanda rolled his eyes, letting out a growl.

“Can you really be that stupid? Lavi, there’s no such thing as ghosts! Why do you believe in them? And why do you think this house is haunted?” Kanda demanded. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. He was tired.

“Okay fine, fine, fine,” Lavi said and his shoulders slumped. “In one of my classes, we were talking about old houses, and well, this one came up. And my professor said that many people think it’s haunted. I checked it out and I think it totally could be haunted! Whoever buys it doesn’t last very long.”

“What do you mean by that, Lavi?” Lenalee asked from the other room where she was poking around.

Lavi followed her in. “I _mean_ , either they move out and sell it quick, or they just disappear and they turn up dead weeks later,” he said.

“Why haven’t we heard of this?” Lenalee asked.

“It hasn’t happened for a while now. The last death was in ’93, I think.”

“So what you’re saying is that this house has been sitting here, empty and for sale for, what, twenty years?” Kanda asked, staring at Lavi. He didn’t know if Lavi had finally cracked, or if he was just having fun messing with his two closest friends.

“No, of course not. That was the last _death_. People buy it, but don’t stay for long. It’s on market within the year. I think there’s something up with it. What if it really is haunted?” Lavi asked in a whispered voice.

Kanda was now concerned with Lavi’s sanity. He knew Lavi. He had known the idiot for nearly his entire life and he could tell when Lavi believed what he was saying. Right now was one of those times; Lavi thought the house could be haunted.

“Why did you have to drag us here though?” Kanda growled.

“I, uh…”

Kanda’s eyebrows rose and a smirk crossed his face. “Were you _scared_ that the ‘ghost’ might get you?” Lavi glanced away. “You’re scared. God, Lavi you’re pathetic.”

“Shut up, Yu. If you had read the things I read, you would be freaked too.”

“Then why the hell did you want to come here?”

“Curiosity! I really wanted to see if it was haunted!”

Kanda rolled his eyes and turned away. He frowned as he looked around the room and saw that their friend was gone. He looked over at Lavi. “Where’s Lenalee? Did you see where she went?”

Lavi shook his head.

“She probably just left the room. Come on, pussy,” Kanda said with a smirk, and left, calling out, “Lenalee?”

“Lenalee, where’d you go?” Lavi called.

“Upstairs,” Lenalee answered back, voice muffled by old floorboards between them. Lavi took the lead as they headed upstairs.

The stairs creaked softly as the two walked up. “If it’s been bought and sold, why does it look so neglected?” Kanda asked as he wiped some dust off the banister.

“I think the last time it was bought was a year or two ago. So it’s been sitting here since then. I’m pretty sure somebody maintains it though because it’s not too rundown, and the lawn is nice,” Lavi said as he walked down the hall, checking rooms for Lenalee.

“What about the flowerbeds?” Kanda asked, skeptically.

“What about them?”

Kanda looked at him with incredulous eyes. “They were dead,” he said.

Lavi turned to look at him, eye wide. “No they weren’t. There were healthy tulips growing in the flowerbeds…”

Kanda blinked and stared at him. “No there weren’t. The flowerbeds were full of dead rosebushes,” he said flatly, eyes narrowed. He really hated it when Lavi messed with him like that.

“…Let’s ask Lenalee what _she_ saw. Where is that girl anyway?” Lavi asked and kept walking.

Kanda followed, frowning. He glimpsed the insides of the rooms as they passed by, empty, or dusty. One or two actually had furniture in it, which he found as very strange. Hadn’t the last owner moved out? And there wasn’t much of anything downstairs. As his eyes trailed over another bedroom (how many rooms did this house have anyway?), he caught a glimpse of something. Something _human_. He stepped back and looked into the room again; nothing except an empty chair sitting in the center. He shook his head. He was letting Lavi and his freaked out stories get to him.

“Kanda, what’s the matter?” Lavi asked, causing Kanda to turn around. Lenalee was now beside the redhead.

“Nothing,” Kanda said, looking into the room for another moment.

“Kanda, you look a little freaked out…” Lenalee said. “What happened?”

“Thought I saw something,” Kanda said.

Lavi’s green eye lit up. “Kanda, I think you’re seeing things.” Kanda shot him a murderous glare. “No, I mean, _ghost_ things!”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Well, okay, Lenalee, what sort of flowers were in the flowerbeds?” Lavi asked, turning to face her.

“Tulips,” she said.

“ _See_? Tulips. Just tulips!”

Lenalee frowned and looked at Kanda. “What did you see?”

“Tulips,” he said with eyes narrowed, and then turning away from the two, arms crossed across his chest.

Lavi let out an indignant huff. “Yu! You told me that you saw dead rosebushes. Not tulips,” he said with a glower. Kanda could tell that his redheaded pain in the ass knew he was just going along with them. Lavi was very acute when dealing with Kanda’s subtleties, which was annoying to say the least.

“You really didn’t see tulips?” the girl asked, eyes wide. “You saw dead rosebushes?”

Kanda gritted his teeth and looked at her. “Fine. Yes. I saw dead roses, not fucking tulips. Happy now?”

“Yes!” Lavi said. “It means there’s something up with this house! I _told_ you! I _told_ you!” He let out a loud whoop and bouncing from foot to foot.

Something downstairs creaked.

“Did you hear that?” Lenalee whispered, grabbing Lavi’s arm and effectively stopping his victory dance. The three looked at each other; even Kanda looked a little on edge. He wouldn’t admit to Lavi that he was now nervous. What had happened in this house? Why had he seen dead roses when his friends hadn’t? And now what was that noise coming from downstairs? Kanda chided himself; he was letting Lavi get to him. It was probably the house settling – Lavi had said that this house was pretty old, didn’t he? Or mice. Or wind.

“Come on, let’s go check it out!” Lavi said in a hushed voice, excitement radiating from his entire being. Lenalee paused then nodded and followed him down the stairs, keeping her flashlight on the step before her.

Kanda let out a soft groan. “You two are being stupid,” he said and trailed after his two companions. “There’s nothing in this fucking house.”

“Yu, shh,” Lavi hissed, flashing his torch in Kanda’s face. “I think it came from the living room…” He took the lead, heading towards the origin of the sound. Lenalee had moved a little closer to the redhead as they entered. Kanda rolled his eyes, because this was getting ridiculous.

“See, nothing here,” Kanda said, trailing his flashlight around the room. “Nothing at all. And why the hell are we using flashlights anyway? I’m sure the lights in this house work just fine.” He stalked over to the wall and flicked the light switch up.

Lenalee let out a startled cry as the bulb exploded and the two men jumped. Lavi gripped his flashlight tightly in his hand. “Oh good job, Yu. You broke the light!”

“It wasn’t my fucking fault,” Kanda hissed as the fuse of the broken bulb flickered and sparked until it was turned off. He looked around the room, snorting at how freaked out Lavi looked. “It’s just an old fuse or something. You said yourself that it’s an old house.”

“Yeah, but why did you have to go and try and turn the damn thing on?” Lavi asked. “Scared the shit out of me.”

“That’s because you’re a pussy,” Kanda retorted.

“Um,” Lenalee said.

“Oh yeah? I’m pretty sure you looked more than a little scared upstairs when you said you saw something!” Lavi said.

“You two,” Lenalee’s voice was urgent now.

“You were the one who dragged me out of my apartment!” Kanda replied, glaring viciously. He took a step forward, intent on grabbing Lavi’s shirt, when Lenalee stepped between them.

“Lavi, Kanda. Would you shut up and just _look_?!” Lenalee said in a hushed voice. The two men looked at her then turned to look where she was facing. Lavi took a step back and choked on any words he was going to say. Kanda had been pretty close to making a rather unmanly sound himself although he was glad to have caught himself.

Someone was standing near the corner of the room. Someone Kanda had never seen in his life. The man looked a bit older than they were, skin milk white and hair jet black. He stood with ease, a natural grace, but he was too pale. Much, _much_ too pale. He looked like he had been taken from a black and white movie.

“H-how long as he been there?” Lavi asked from the corner of his mouth.

“Since you started fighting,” Lenalee replied then raised her voice to ask, “Sir? Hello?” Lavi choked and grabbed at her arm. “Lavi, what the hell?”

“Don’t talk to it,” Lavi whispered.

“He’s not a ghost. There are no such things as ghosts!” Kanda said and turned back to the man. He focused his flashlight over the man, who had finally turned to give them a passing glance. “Don’t know how the hell he got in here though. Can he even hear us?”

“Sir?” Lenalee asked again. The man gave no sign that he had heard her. He looked passed the group at something they couldn’t see. Kanda turned to see if he could catch a glimpse at what this man was looking at, but as he moved his beam of light across the wall, the three flashlights flickered.

And flickered again then shut off completely, plunging them into darkness.

“It’s a ghost damn it!” Lavi yelped loudly and Kanda let out a loud grunt as the redhead grabbed onto him. “I told you it was haunted.”

“Shut up and get off me,” Kanda said, trying to shove him off. He got some space between them and hit his flashlight on his palm. “It’s nothing.” He hit it again. “See? Works fine,” he said as the light came back on.

He turned his light back towards the man and his breath caught in his throat. Lenalee screamed and Lavi let out a strangled cry. The man, who had been standing there silent and quiet moments before was now swinging from the ceiling by the rope tight around his neck. Kanda had never seen someone hanged in real life before and for a moment he was mesmerized by the sway of the body and the tautness of the rope.

All three of them ran out of the room, out of the house, panting hard. Lavi was letting out soft whimpers as he tried to control his breathing and get his key into the ignition of his car. As Kanda threw himself into the backseat of the car, he could just glimpse the shadow of movement through the window, as if someone was swinging gently from side to side from the ceiling fan, before Lavi was driving from the house.

 

-o-

 

“What the hell happened last night?” Kanda asked his friends, leaning forward to rest his arms on the table. He was having trouble believing that what they had seen was real. This morning, it just felt like a bad dream. Nothing real; not a ghost, that was for sure. Just a creepy old house that Lavi had dragged him to.

“A ghost, I’m telling you,” Lavi said. “You saw him! The guy. Hanged in the main room! The guy who didn’t see us, who was deathly white, who had old styled clothes. He has to be a ghost. There’s no other explanation.”

“Yes. There is. You fed us some bullshit story and freaked us out. I’m sure you set this whole thing up, just to try and prove that ghosts exist,” Kanda said, eyebrows knit together as he stared hard at Lavi. “Don’t you know some kids from the theater department?”

“I didn’t set that up!” Lavi exclaimed.

“I don’t know. I was there and I’m still not sure I believe you,” Lenalee chimed in. “I was scared last night, but we all were. It easily could have just been our imaginations getting the better of us. People see crazy things when they’re scared and you know it.”

“But, wait,” Lavi said. “Something bad happened in that house!”

Lenalee looked at him slowly. “Something you failed to mention to us last night?”

Lavi scowled. “I couldn’t sleep when I got back to my place, so I, well, went digging. Into the house. Apparently it was the first on the block, set away from town.” He pulled a folder from his bag and opened it. The first thing in the folder was an old black and white photograph of the house. “See, this was the house right after it was built.” He slid it across the table so the other two could see.

“It looks pretty much the same as it looks now,” Lenalee said. “A bit nicer. When was this taken?”

“The house was built right before the 20th century. It’s been around for a long time. And see, look, there are roses in the front,” Lavi said. “But it was a big deal. The family who had it built was this rich family, owned a lot of land and part of the town even, I think.” He slid some other photographs over to them. “And see…it’s the dude we saw.”

He pointed to someone in one of the shots. Kanda kept his mouth tightly shut so he didn’t drop his jaw like an idiot. Lavi was right. It was the same person, but that didn’t really mean anything. Lavi could have already known this and still set the whole thing up. You could do wonders with makeup if you knew how to use it. Kanda turned the photograph over and saw small writing in the lower right hand corner. “Can you read this?” he asked Lenalee.

Lenalee leaned in. “I think it says ‘Campbell’, but that’s my best guess,” she said.

“That would match all the papers. The Campbell brothers owned it,” Lavi said. “They were part of a pretty big family, from what I can find…” The redhead continued to talk, but it became a drone to Kanda as he got distracted. His eyes had fallen onto another figure in one of the photographs next to the man with the dark hair. He stood to one side, straight and proud and he could see the slightest of smiles curling those slim lips. Kanda guessed the young man’s hair was very light blonde, because it turned out as white in the black and white picture. He had a jagged scar running down the left side of his face.

“Kanda, you listening?”

“No,” Kanda said, not looking up. “Who’s that?” He pointed to the young man about their age.

“Uhhh, I _think_ it’s the nephew of the guy we saw last night. Walker. Allen, I think. That’s what I found. He pops up here and there, but there’s very little about him in everything I’ve found. I think there’s a picture of just him somewhere though,” he said and picked through the photographs he had collected. “Ah hah! Here you go.” He handed Kanda the photograph.

It was on a thick cardstock-type paper, like the others. In it the same young man stood, this time alone, hands on the back of a chair. His smile was easy, gentle and like the sun. He wondered what color his clothes were. The three piece suit he was wearing was dark, the ribbon around his throat blending into his jacket where it overlapped. Blue? Red? Or was it just black? Kanda could see red fitting the young man. He turned it over and read the curling writing with some difficulty. _Allen Walker, June 1894_.

“What happened to them?” For some reason, Lenalee was speaking in a hushed voice and the strange thing was that it seemed appropriate. Pouring over the images of people long since dead seemed to encourage some sort of respect. Kanda couldn’t help but eye Allen Walker. “I mean, did the family just die off?”

“The two Campbell brothers never married. I can’t seem to find any documentation about any women in the house besides their maid. Not even a mistress or lover. They have plenty of relatives but none holding the name of Campbell. And then there was this accident with the elder brother. See,” Lavi said and pulled out an old, fragile newspaper clipping. Faded ink still eligible read: _Eldest Campbell Brother Killed in Carriage Accident_ with a photograph of an upturned and broken horse-drawn carriage. A horse lay dead beside it, its neck broken. “Then all the clippings and photos just stop, except for this short article about a reporter going to the house to try and speak with the youngest brother. He got chased out by the guy and called him insane and unsettled. The last mention of him is a while later, when the mailman saw something through the drawing room window and looked in. Found him hanged from the ceiling.”

“Was…was the lounge where we were last night?” Lenalee whispered.

Lavi nodded, eye wide with excitement and nerves. He collected all of his papers and photographs and carefully placed them back into the manila folder, except for the photograph that Kanda was still holding.

“What about him?” he asked, turning the photograph so Lavi could see. “Where did _he_ go?”

“No one knows,” Lavi said.

At first Kanda thought Lavi was just behind his usual ass self, dragging him along and trying to make the story creepier than it already was. But the longer he stared at his friend, the longer he realized that Lavi was telling the truth, to the extent of his knowledge. A chill ran down his spine.

“I guess, when they found the younger Campbell, they looked for the kid, but couldn’t find him anywhere. They decided he had run off and started a new life or something,” Lavi said with a small shrug. He seemed much more concerned with the death of the younger Campbell brother.

“What are the brother’s names?” Lenalee asked. She had been listening carefully and Kanda could tell she was curious as to why he was so stuck on this Allen Walker.

“The older brother is Mana Campbell, the younger is Neah Campbell,” the redhead said. “So…are we gonna go back?” He leaned forward in his seat, hands braced on the table. His eye glittered with excitement. “We should! We should see if we, well, find anything else. Maybe poke around in the attic and the basement.”

“Lavi, I know you’re excited and I know you think this is an actual haunting, but do you _really_ believe there would still be items or documents left from when it was built, all the way in the late 19 th century? Especially after so many times bought and sold?” the young woman in between them asked, raising an eyebrow. “Not to get you down or anything, but that seems _very_ unlikely.”

Kanda agreed. He crossed his arms across his chest, still holding the photograph, forgetting for the moment that he held it, and watched the redhead and the Chinese girl.

“Don’t be such a spoil sport! It won’t hurt anyone if we go look around again. You never know, there _might_ be something there!”

He shook his head just a little at his friend and closed his eyes. Realizing he still had the photograph in his hand, he paused then slipped it into his back pocket. Thankfully Lavi didn’t notice; if he had, he would have made fun. Instead, he was focused on trying to convince Lenalee to come back. Kanda figured he would have no choice; someone needed to make sure that the idiot wouldn’t die of fright, so he resigned himself to going with his redheaded friend. And it seemed that Lenalee couldn’t resist Lavi’s one-eyed puppy dog stare, because she agreed as well. The college student let out a loud whoop, drawing eyes from surrounding tables.

 

-o-

 

Kanda had expected to be dragged to the Campbell estate later that night, but to his surprise that didn’t happen. Lavi disappeared for several days. He had been too distracted by the haunted house to do school work, and was now paying for it with a couple papers to finish and a test to study for. Without Lavi, the thoughts of the tragedy of the Campbells and of Allen Walker left his mind and he concentrated on his school work and how he could pointedly ignoring it.

It was only when he was going to do laundry that he found the old photograph of Allen Walker in his pants pocket. He was immensely grateful he checked his pockets before washing them – after Lavi had snuck a candle into one of his pockets, he always checked his clothes – because he would have felt guilty. He didn’t know why he would have felt guilty, maybe just because the photograph was old and was one of the last things relating to some young man who was no longer alive, and it would be bad luck to destroy something like that. Having nowhere else to put it he transferred the photograph into his pocket and continued the load of clothes.

Lavi seemed to be on the same brainwave, because an hour later he received a text from the annoying man, saying that he wanted to go to the house again tonight and that he would be by Kanda’s apartment with Lenalee around eight, right after sunset.

You’d think that with how Lavi was, he’d be late, but the redhead was always at least five minutes early to everything. Lenalee was perfectly on time wherever she went. And Kanda, well, he was almost always late. Sometimes it was a tossup if he showed up at all. He wasn’t surprised when Lavi appeared just before sunset with a wide and eager smile plastered across his face. Kanda sighed and pulled his jacket on then followed his friend back to the car, where Lenalee was waiting in the front passenger seat.

Lavi seemed to be shaking with barely contained energy as he drove, that stupid grin never leaving his face. Kanda looked out the window, watching houses and stores speed past his view. They were in the rich neighborhood and then they were driving into the driveway, past the mailbox and the trees. The headlights of the car lit up the house once more, just like last time, and Lavi kept them on for a moment as he got situated. Then he killed the lights and the engine and got out of the car, flashlight in hand.

Kanda had brought his own flashlight this time, which he flicked on as he got out and trudged after his friends. He stopped on the steps and gave a long, intense look at the flowerbeds beside the porch. Harmless, alive tulips sat silently in straight rows, stems bowing just slightly with the weight of the flower heads. He ‘tsk’d softly and turned to follow his friends.

Lavi had already gotten the door open – that still annoyed the fuck out of him – and was walking in. “Where should we start? Basement or attic?”

“Attic? We can work our way down,” Lenalee suggested and the other two agreed. Finding the entrance to the attic was easy, but Lavi had to jump to grab the pull so they could get the ladder down. He missed the first two times and Kanda laughed, smirking, but did nothing to help. On the third try, he finally got it.

To the redhead’s disappointment, there was nothing in the spacious room. They poked around for several minutes, only to find dust and a dead bird. Lavi grumbled softly.

“Basement, then?” Lenalee suggested. The ginger bobbed his head and went in search of the door that would lead them down into the basement, because of course a house like this would have to have a basement. The young woman did the same and Kanda begrudgingly agreed to this little Easter egg hunt for the basement door.

It proved to be harder to find, but he was the one who found it nestled in the corner of the kitchen. He could have sworn the door hadn’t been there that first preliminary search of the kitchen, but maybe they just hadn’t been paying attention. It wasn’t locked, but the door seemed to have expanded because of age or humidity in its frame – or maybe it was the opposite – and he had to kick it several times before it swung open, unbalancing him. He stepped back and dusted his hands off, smirking a little. The smell of dust and neglect overcame him for a moment.

The sound had drawn the attention of Lenalee and Lavi, over on the other side of the house and they came running. Lenalee’s eyes were wide with start, as if she thought something had fallen on Kanda. “Found the basement,” he said, smirking at the two. The redhead grinned and poked his head into the doorway, shining his flashlight down the dusty staircase.

“Wow, _this_ looks like it’s been abandoned for a long time,” Lenalee said as she peered around her friend, eyeing the dust, the cobwebs and the way the steps sagged under the weight of nothing but time. Then she frowned and straightened. “I don’t even remember seeing this door…”

“Strange, neither do I,” Lavi hummed and his green eye gleamed. “Then maybe there _is_ something down there!”

Kanda expected him to bound down the old and dilapidated steps, but he just stood there by the door, looking down the stairs. “You going to go down or what?” he sneered. “You’re scared, aren’t you?” When Lavi didn’t answer, he continued, “fine, I’ll go first.” He turned away from the redhead and took the first step down into the basement. Lavi sucked in a breath and held it until Kanda turned to look over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. “It’s a basement Lavi. Nothing is going to attack us. And they’re sturdy enough.” He continued down the steps.

His navy eyes widened as he felt the stair creak and crack and then give away. He let out a startled yell as he fell through the staircase, hitting the basement floor with a hard thud, wood and dust raining down around him. _Shit that hurt._

“Kanda!” Lenalee cried out and her flashlight beam flashed back and forth in her panic. A creak of the stairs told him that she had stepped onto the staircase.

“I’m fine,” Kanda grumbled. Nothing was broken but he’d have a hell of a bruise on the side of his thigh. “Be careful.” He listened as two sets of footsteps slowly made it down into the basement, hugging the wall as they stepped passed the hole Kanda had created during his fall. He rubbed his arm and dusted his pants off, looking around for his flashlight. He had to kick away some of the wood to find it and then picked it up.

Lenalee and Lavi had reached him, breathless and worried. Lenalee hugged him before he could say anything. “I’m glad you’re okay. You scared me,” she said as she pulled away.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kanda said, brushing dusty hair from his face. He looked up to see Lavi step away from them, starting to take in the basement. “Guess the basement’s been ignored for a while.”

“Wow,” he breathed. “Look at this place. It’s as big as the house…”

It was indeed, spanning the entire floor plan of the house. The floor was padded with a thick carpet of dust and cobwebs hung abandoned on the ceiling and off the wooden supports. Their shoes made no noise as they walked. Without walls like the upstairs, it was a huge, stagnant room. Air got caught in Kanda’s throat and he had to try hard not to cough. All around the basement were scattered _things_. Furniture. Books. Boxes upon boxes upon crates upon crates. Empty bottles. Dead rats that seemed to have been mummified, from the lack of rotting-flesh smell. He kicked an empty wine bottle and it rolled across the blanket of thick dust, carving a path as it went.

Lenalee sneezed somewhere to his left.

“Come look at this!” Lavi called from the other side of the stairs and, following the beam of light thick with dust motes and the sounds of shuffling, he and Lenalee found their friend. He was kneeling in the dust and grime, before a crate he had pried open with an old pipe. He held up a heavy, leather-bound book to the other two and Lenalee took it. He stood up and dusted his knees off before standing beside the young woman.

Lavi had already wiped off the front, but it said very little about what was held inside. The name _Campbell_ had been stamped into the leather, but that was it. Carefully, she opened the book, to reveal a photo album. Kanda shifted his flashlight and the three leaned closer to get a better look at the photographs.

There were pictures of Neah and Mana Campbell alone and together. Always smiling. Kanda was surprised at how similar they looked. Even though Mana was older, they looked like they could have been twins, if the older brother cut his hair. There were a couple pictures that looked to be when they were younger. One had the both of them around the age of twelve, standing beside a woman who couldn’t have been anyone but their mother.

“She’s beautiful,” Lenalee murmured, brushing a finger across the photograph before turning the page. She finally stopped at the very last page, eyes wide. It was the only photograph in the entire album that was in color.

In front of the house stood an entire family. Extended family, cousins, aunts, parents, everyone it seemed. A segregation could be seen within the crowd though. The Campbell brothers were set off to the side, a little away from the others. And there was Allen – Kanda had been right, red looked good on him, _but that couldn’t be right, could it?_ His hair looked to be silver white – between Mana and a young girl who was all frill and lace. She was holding his hand. Behind her stood a pale sickly woman, hand on her shoulder. Her husband stood close beside her. Next to him stood a man who was a little bit taller, a little bit more handsome, but no doubt his younger brother. This family sure had a lot of brothers.

Carefully, Lenalee slipped the photograph from its place in the album and turned it around. _The Clan of Noah_. “Looks like you have something else to research,” she said, holding it up so that Lavi could better read the neat handwriting. He grinned just a little and nodded as she slipped the photograph back into place.

Lavi took the backpack off his shoulder and took the photo album from Lenalee, sliding it into the safety of the bag before zipping it back up. “Let’s keep looking around!” he said and chose a different box to pry open and pick through. Lenalee stifled another sneeze as a cloud of dust blossomed from where Lavi was digging around and stepped back so she could breathe easier.

Kanda turned away from them and let his flashlight trail across the basement. He walked to a box that seemed to have been shoved into the corner and knelt.

“Can we go upstairs with some things? I’m having trouble breathing,” Lenalee asked. “We can always come back down for more.” The Japanese man nodded from where he was, although he doubted that Lenalee could actually see it, and picked up the box he had reached. He hoisted it up in his arms and came back to the other two, raising an eyebrow at Lavi who was trying to pile several boxes on top of each other.

Together the three of them made it out of the dusty basement and sat in the middle of the kitchen floor. Lenalee paused then tried the kitchen light. It took a moment to turn on but it turned on all the same. The soft, dusty glow lit up the kitchen, making it not quite as horror-movie like and more like a normal house. If a normal house had no furniture and a gaping door into darkness that led to a decrepit basement. She settled down beside Lavi and dragged one of the crates he had brought up to start looking through.

Kanda leaned against one of the cabinets and opened the box he had gotten. Why had it been in the corner? Inside, a random assortment of things were piled. A couple old books with cracked covers. A glass bell jar with a beautiful butterfly. A couple photographs. He set them on the floor. This box seemed to contain some of Allen’s possessions, judging by the name written within the books and on several papers. Finally he reached the bottom, to find a journal, tied closed with a red ribbon.

“This is the best historical find in the history of this town!” Lavi said in a voice drenched with excitement. A pause in his voice told Kanda that the redhead was now looking his way. “Hey, Yu, whatcha got there?”

“Allen Walker’s journal,” Kanda said as he untied the ribbon and let it fall on his lap. He frowned as he turning the pages. The writing was a bit messy and some pages were torn out or eaten by moths or ruined by water or time. Pages had stuck together and were unable to be pulled apart.

“Well, go on and read some of it for us!”

Kanda scowled but nodded and turned to a page in the middle. “ _‘July 7 th, 1895. Mana’s sick again and I’m concerned. Neah hasn’t left his bedside all week and the doctor is still here. I could leave, he wouldn’t notice at all, but I don’t want to leave not knowing if Mana is alright or not.’_” He looked up to his friends, who both had wide-eyed expressions.

“Keep reading,” Lenalee whispered and he turned back to the journal.

“The next couple pages are ruined,” he murmured then continued to read. Something dark spotted the page “ _‘October 10 th, 1895. Today is the fifth time I’ve tried to leave, but it’s no use. He’s done it again and it hurts badly but there isn’t a thing I can do. I don’t know what happened to the Neah I used to know…I can’t write anymore, it hurts too much. I’ll write again tomorrow.’_”

“Something crazy happened in this house,” Lavi said, looking pale. He gripped the books he was holding tightly, looking between his friends.

“You could say that,” Kanda said and held up the book so that they could both see the stain that he had just identified. “It’s blood.”

Lenalee paled and dropped the piece of clothing she had dug up so she could covered her mouth. “What happened in this house?” she murmured. “Allen was a captive? Who’s ‘he’?” The redhead gave a small shrug and looked back at his box.

Kanda continued reading through the journal to himself. He had to stop for a moment as he stared at an entry. “You need to hear this,” he said, eyes wider than normal as he neared the end of the journal. He looked up at his friends. “Some weird shit happened here for sure. This one doesn’t even have a date… _‘Mana’s dead and now he’s gone mad. He’s locked all the windows and doors and I fear that I’ll die here. He’s been pacing the halls, talking to himself. He’s come in several times, to make sure that I haven’t run off and God, I’m too scared to try.’_ ” He blinked. “Here’s another. _‘He’s gone to carrying around his knives with him all the time. It’s only a matter of time now, I know it. Whenever he comes, he has **fun** with it. I don’t know how long until he decides it is no longer fun… I don’t know how much longer I can last. There is nothing I can do to save him.’_ ”

“What the _hell_ went on here?” Lavi asked. “Is he talking about Neah Campbell? Since Mana died.”

“That’s the only logical explanation,” Lenalee stuttered. She looked sick. “What was he _doing_?”

Kanda opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the kitchen light exploded in a shower of sparks, just like the light bulb in the entryway. Lenalee screamed and Kanda let out a startled grunt, pushing himself back against the cabinets. Lavi fumbled with his flashlight before getting it turned on and looked at his friends, eye wide with panic. Lenalee had grabbed Lavi’s arm in her anxiousness. As he watched, a strong shiver ran through the redhead’s body.

“Is it just me, or did it get ten degrees colder in here?” Lavi asked after a long moment. Kanda nodded, looking around. His flashlight hit something that caused his breath to get caught in his throat and slowly he turned it back.

A figure was standing in the middle of the dining room, facing the kitchen. Black hair fell in front of his face and Kanda stiffened, knuckles going white on the journal. He let out a slow breath and it formed a cloud before him. “Shit,” he said under his breath. _Ghosts aren’t real. They aren’t. I’m hallucinating. Nothing more. Just a trick of the light_. He knew he was fooling himself, because there was no light. No moonlight filtered in through the barren windows. And the only time he had hallucinated was when Lavi had convinced him to try mushrooms and he would never try that again. If Lavi had somehow slipped him drugs, he would _kill_ him.

“What is it, Yu?” Lavi asked, looking up from the book he was picking through, suppressing another strong shiver. Kanda didn’t look at him, just kept his eyes focused on Neah. The man, ghost, whatever he was, stood relaxed with a slight smile curving his lips.

Kanda was frightened. Truly scared. He hadn’t felt like this in many years.

“Fucking look,” he said to Lavi.

The sound of fabric rustling and creaking, dusty pages told Kanda that his friend had turned. The gasp confirmed this. “Oh shit.”

“N-Neah,” Lenalee said. “Neah, can you hear us?”

“Don’t talk to the insane ghost, Lenalee!” Lavi whimpered out, grabbing the girl’s arm. _Lenalee is the least frightened of the three of us, god damn it_. Kanda shot a swift glance at the two before looking back at the younger Campbell brother.

“You’re not going to leave. You have to stay with me. You promised.” The ghost’s voice sounded surprisingly alive, a strong, commanding voice that pleaded for compliance, that suggested love and comfort and endless protection and never ending pain. Kanda was compelled to follow the ghost’s wishes, to stay here forever. And by the look that had come across Lavi’s face, he was encountering the same confusing feelings. He turned back to the ghost.

And then something changed. It was a sudden change and made Kanda recoil and hit his head against the cabinet. “I told you, you will stay here with me _forever_!” he commanded, hands clenched in tight fists. Wind whipped through the house, picking up papers and books and carrying them to other rooms. Lavi nearly got hit in the face by one as it flew from the room. The house creaked ominously with the force of the ghostly wind and cabinets were thrown open, only to be slammed closed once more.

“Come on!” Lavi said and scrambled to his feet. “I don’t think I _want_ to stay here forever with an insane ghost.” He tripped over a box then ran to the door. Kanda followed closely behind with the journal still clutched in his hand, nearly falling as he stepped on the satin ribbon.. The redhead grabbed the doorknob and turned it but the door wouldn’t budge. His eye widened and he pulled it harder. “Kanda. Kanda, the door is _not_ opening.” Kanda grabbed the doorknob as well and the two of them pulled on it in unison, but all the door did was creak.

“Try the windows!” he said, trying to be heard over the howling wind that still buffeted them. He felt his feet slide against the smooth hard wood floor because of the force of it.

Lenalee tried to tug one open, making sure the lock was undone. It wouldn’t budge. Kanda growled and went back to the kitchen, picking up one of the wooden crates. Dumping out the contents on the floor – a pile of clothes and a crumpled and faded top hat – he came back. “Move out of the way!” he snarled.

“Yu, stop!” Lavi called out, but he didn’t care. He was getting the fuck out of this house. He drew the crate back and brought it to slam up against the window. It should have shattered. It should have broken into a million pieces. But it didn’t. Nothing happened to the window at all.

Instead, the crate bounced off the window and carried him with it. He fell back onto the ground, the crate bouncing across the floor of the drawing room. “Fuck,” he snapped. As he looked at his friends, both of which were wide eyed and pale, the wind died down. There was no trace but scattered papers and books to hint at what had just happened. One of the cabinets in the kitchen closed with a dull thud, making them jump. In a futile gesture, Lavi tried to open the door without success.

“I…guess we’ll have to spend the night,” he said weakly.

 Kanda got off the ground, fuming. His palms throbbed painfully from his fall. He was angry that a man who had died over 100 years before had locked them up in his house. Dusting off his pants for what seemed to be the 20th time this trip, he looked around.

“I guess so,” Lenalee said. She pulled a hairclip from her pocket and pinned her bangs back on her head and out of her face. “There – there isn’t much we can do except wait it out. He hasn’t hurt us yet…”

Kanda grunted in agreement, but he figured it was only a matter of time before the ghost got past the point of yelling. After all, there were the horrors mentioned in Allen’s journal, some unspeakable torture that the boy hadn’t been able to write about, even in his personal journal. “We should find somewhere safe and settle down, get some sleep if we can,” he said, letting his gaze travel around the room.

For some reason, Lavi had an excited gleam in his eyes. For a man who had just been terrified out of his skin, he seemed to be relishing in the fact that this was really happening. Some people _liked_ being scared, and Kanda really should have remembered that Lavi was one of them. God knows how many horror movies he’d been dragged to as they came out. The most recent one to date was _The Evil Dead_ , and although it had been scary, the gore had outweighed the terror. Lavi seemed to enjoy it none the less. “I’ll be right back!” he said and shuffled off, down the entry way hallway that ran next to the staircase. He returned a minute later carrying three sleeping bags.

“Where the hell did you get those?!” Kanda snapped, staring at him with disbelief.

“I got them from my car while we were looking for the basement. It never hurts to be prepared, right? Especially when dealing with a haunted house!” he said and tossed one to each of them. The long-haired young man caught it and scowled at the redhead.

“You _wanted_ something like this to happen, didn’t you?” _He planned this all along, that fucker._ He gripped the polyester and feather sleeping bag in anger.

“When do we get ghosts doing shit like this?! This is amazing! Terrifying as hell, but amazing! We are _living_ through a horror movie! And what if we could, like, release the ghosts?” He rocked onto the balls of his feet, wide eyed with excitement. He hugged the sleeping bag to his chest tightly and grinned.

“You seem to be forgetting what happens to most people in horror movies,” Kanda muttered to himself, holding the sleeping bag in a limp grasp at his side. Neither of his friends heard him.

“What do you mean by ‘ghosts’?” Lenalee asked. “Plural? We’ve only seen Neah…”

“Well, something bad obviously happened to the kid, so it would make sense that he would be here also,” Lavi said. “Even if we haven’t seen him yet. Tormented souls stick around, right?” Kanda had to admit that that did make sense. He padded back to the kitchen slowly and picked up his flashlight. The ghost of Neah was gone, although he didn’t expect him to still be there. No doubt he’d be back though. He came back to the drawing room where his friends were standing and gave them their flashlights, which had been forgotten in the panic.

“I guess we should find somewhere to sleep,” Lenalee said. “I think we should go upstairs…it’s too open down – what…?” Something dripped onto her shoulder and then face. She blinked several times and wiped the thick, viscous liquid off her skin to look at it.

Kanda and Lavi both turned their attention to the ceiling slowly. The Japanese man had this sinking feeling that he knew what it was and he knew Lenalee would scream once she realized as well.

A dark crimson stain was spreading out along the ceiling.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said I would have this up by 7/20, and obviously that didn't happen. Life and lack of motivation got in the way, since I needed to fix some stuff. But I hope that you enjoy it!  
> This chapter is the reason for the warnings.

Chapter 2

 

Kanda watched another drip fall and hit Lenalee and she finally realized what it was. Letting out a loud scream, she stumbled backwards and hit the wall. Gasping in disgust and panic, she wiped at her face with her jacket sleeve. She looked like she could be sick and closed her eyes as she breathed hard. Her face was pale.

For a moment nothing else could be heard but the _plunk plunk_ of blood and Lenalee’s panicked breathing could be heard.

Kanda just stared up at the blood soaking through the floor above. His own blood ran cold and he felt his stomach flip. Another trick of the ghost, no doubt. But he had this sinking feeling that it had happened. And if it was soaking through the wood floors, it had to be a lot of blood. Too much blood. No one would be able to survive the loss of that much blood. “I’m going to find out where it’s coming from,” he stated.

Both of his friends let out loud yelps of surprise and he found himself blinded by two flashlights. He held up his hand to block the light. “What do you mean? There is blood dripping from the ceiling!” Lenalee said, eyes very wide. She was more than a little shaken to have had blood drip onto her. But really, who could blame her? He couldn’t tell what Lavi was at the moment, he seemed to be torn between horror and deep curiosity.

“I agree with Kanda, I wanna see what is it,” Lavi said after a pause. “And we should find a room to sleep in.”

“Preferably one on the other side of the house,” Lenalee muttered and the redhead nodded.

Together, the three of them headed upstairs, slowly and carefully. No gusts of wind tugged at them, no screams echoed in their ears. The stairs creaked but that was it. First they picked through the rooms, until Lenalee was satisfied with one. It was in the corner of the house, diagonal to the location where the blood had soaked through, and it was small and safe-feeling. In another time, it would have been perfect for a baby’s room or maybe a study. Lenalee unrolled the sleeping bag that Lavi had given her and put it in the center of the room. Lavi and Kanda followed suit, putting the sleeping bags on either side of the girl. Then Kanda turned away and left the room to explore.

The room that seemed to be above the blood was empty, like every other room. It gave him an uneasy feeling as he looked around, seeing no blood, seeing no stains on the walls or the wooden floor. Realtors would have gotten rid of those stains though, would they have not? He frowned and padded across the floor carefully. He ran his hand across the wall, feeling for anything strange but found nothing.

He just couldn’t shake the feeling that this room _wasn’t the right size_. He left after another long stare, going back to the small corner room where his friends were waiting. Lavi seemed to have decided he’d rather stay with Lenalee. For his sake or Lenalee’s, Kanda was unsure.

“Find anything?” Lavi asked from where he was seated on the sleeping bag. Lenalee sat beside him, knees to her chest, arms around them. Kanda shook his head. The strange, uncomfortable feeling of the room could wait until later. He could wait until later. For now, he’d keep it to himself. The redhead’s shoulders slumped in disappointment and he gave a loud sigh. “What good is a big puddle of blood soaking through the ceiling if there’s nothing connected to it? Maybe it’s Neah just messing with us. But that really wouldn’t make any sense, since he asked us to stay here.”

“Do you think he was actually asking _us_?” Lenalee asked, brushing a stray strand of hair from her face as Kanda joined them on the floor. “I mean, all sorts of legends and myths say that ghosts repeat what they went through. Could he have been repeating something he had said to someone else?”

Lavi looked thoughtful. “Could be. Who would he be talking to?”

Kanda pulled the journal from his jacket pocket and held it up for the other two to look at.

“Allen? You think?” The redhead seemed to be holding himself back from saying more and Kanda just _knew_ that he wanted to jump on the fact that Kanda had _kept_ the journal.

He nodded. “From what he’s written in here, it seems like Neah wanted him to stay, especially after Mana’s death. And maybe he _did_ promise. Before Neah went insane,” he said. He wondered, for a moment, if Allen had actually been in the kitchen and Neah had been speaking to him directly. Maybe he had been behind them but all three were too caught up in watching Neah to notice. Lavi hummed in agreement. For a moment, the three of them sat in silence and Lenalee pulled out her phone.

“No service,” she murmured. “Doesn’t really surprise me. Guess technology doesn’t work too well around mystical things like this.” She didn’t put it away, clutching it tightly in her hand. The glow lit up her hand before the screen timed out and became black once again.

Kanda sighed and lay back onto the sleeping bag, staring up at the ceiling unseeingly. He heard the floor creak and Lavi moved in his peripheral vision. Footsteps told him the redhead had left the room with a small mumble of “be right back” and disappeared. He returned shortly after and Kanda turned his head and his eyebrows rose in surprise as he saw that the redhead had brought up some things that they had had in the kitchen. He pushed himself up to a sitting position.

“Really, Lavi?” he asked.

Lavi bobbed his head and grinned and settled down again, rifling through the boxes. As he sifted through, he set things beside him: an old empty coca cola bottle; a book without a cover; a pocket watch covered in dust that wasn’t ticking. “You know what I find strange?” he said, hands pausing momentarily in the papers and books and trinkets.

“What?” Lenalee asked as she scrolled through her phone. She seemed to be wanting to cling to something _normal_ , something she was used to. It lit up her face in the that pale blue glow.

“Well, nowhere can I find any children from Mana,” he said. “But somewhere it said that Allen was Neah’s nephew. And they had no other siblings…” Kanda looked startled at that. He hadn’t made that connection, even though he remembered Lavi saying neither Campbell brother had gotten married. “At least none that I can find…No record of anything. No mention of another brother or a sister. And Allen doesn’t really look _related_ , if you look closely.”

“Adopted?” Kanda said, stretching out his back. It made some satisfying pops and he relaxed again. Lavi only hummed to show he had heard his friend.

The young woman between them looked thoughtful, dropping her phone into her lap. “Do you have any pictures of them? Like, just the three of them together?” she asked Lavi. The redhead thought he had seen one in one of the boxes and went in search of it.

“What are you thinking?” Kanda asked after a moment, watching his ginger friend shuffle through papers looking for the photograph he swore he had seen earlier in the kitchen.

Lenalee turned to look at him. “I want to see if they really do look related or not,” she said simply. “And how old the three of them look next to each other…” She wasn’t telling him everything she was thinking and Kanda was frustrated. He wanted to know what the girl was hinting at. What she thought was going on.

“Ah ha! I knew I had seen one,” Lavi said and pulled out a battered but still intact photograph from between some dusty novels. This one was in color, but they were dulled by time. It seemed that, even though they had had the ability to get color photographs, they chose to get many in black and white. Maybe they liked how it looked. Maybe it was expensive or time consuming. Whatever the choice was, this one was in color. It showed the three men standing together, Allen in the center. Mana was the tallest and obviously the oldest. Even though he and Neah looked like they could be twins, the closer Kanda looked, the more he could tell that Mana was indeed older. Crinkles at the corners of his eyes showed how the man had smiled a lot.

“There really is no resemblance, is there?” Lenalee asked, holding the photograph so her friends could see it easily.

Lavi squinted at the photograph closely then shook his head. Kanda took another long moment to look at it but he could find no resemblance at all either. Allen had a different facial structure and rounder, pale eyes. An open sort of face. He looked at her, narrowing his eyes.

“He actually looks, well, like he could be close to Neah’s age…” she continued. “Maybe our age but not young enough to be Mana’s son. ”

“What are you suggesting?”

She ignored the question and continued to speak. “And look at how closely Neah is standing to Allen…He seems to almost be touching him,” she said, running a thin finger down the photograph. Kanda squinted at the photograph and could make out something that _could_ have been Neah’s gloved hand resting against Allen’s arm. She looked up at her companions. “In the 19th century, public physical contact wasn’t accepted between a man and a woman; don’t you think it’s strange that two men are this close to touching? Come on, you guys can’t be that slow!” She frowned at the both of them. Lavi was staring at her stupidly, head cocked to the side. He looked like he legitimately didn’t know what Lenalee was insinuating. Kanda was looking at her as well, a frown plastered on his face. He thought he knew what she was suggesting.

When neither of them spoke, she let out an exasperated sigh and lowered the photograph. “It seems to me that Allen Walker and Neah Campbell were _lovers_ ,” she said.  “Confirmed bachelors, as they called it.”

Understanding dawned on Lavi’s face in a strong flash and Kanda snorted. But even when she said it out loud, he was having some trouble believing it. Could she really believe that? Could that have actually happened?

“Look, remember what Neah said? He said ‘ _You have to stay with me. You promised._ ’ That doesn’t sound like an uncle-nephew type statement. That sounds like a promise made between two lovers,” she continued.

“Then how do you explain Allen wanting to run away?” Kanda asked. Thinking about it in the way of lovers was making him more uncomfortable. Not because of the, you know, lover part, as Kanda had definitely enjoyed his fair share of shapely men, but that Neah had done _something_ unspeakable to his lover, if that was the case.

Lenalee rolled her eyes. “Abusive relationships, Kanda. They exist. They exist now and they existed 100 years ago. Maybe Allen didn’t know what he was getting into. Maybe Neah was fine until Mana died, then he really _did_ go insane and clung onto the only thing he had in front of him.”

Kanda opened his mouth then closed it and thought about that. It sounded plausible. He knew that gay relationships _did_ happen in the 19th century, they were just not talked about. It was a secret, left alone unless it came to be out in the open. And since the Campbells seemed to be relatively withdrawn, it would have been pretty easy to keep that silent. And maybe Allen could have passed as someone younger. Or maybe people just ignored that, thought they were family friends or something like that. His eyes widened suddenly and he picked up the journal again.

“What is it, Kanda?” Lavi asked, startled with the intensity in which his friend was looking through the journal.

“Remember one of the passages I read? He said something about Mana being ill and he could have run away but he didn’t want to until he knew Mana was alright?” he asked. He couldn’t find the passage at the moment so set the book down so as to not rip a page. Lavi nodded slowly and Kanda wasn’t sure if he understood what he was getting at or was just being uncharacteristically slow, like this whole business with the ghosts had shocked him deeply. “He was in love with Mana.”

Lavi looked thoughtful at that, watching Kanda. “Could be,” he hummed, resting his chin on his palm, elbow on his knee. “This was one twisted house, that’s for sure…Allen comes here as Neah’s lover but falls in love with his brother, then Mana dies and leaves Neah insane with Allen. Neah clings onto him and doesn’t let him leave because Allen, maybe in a moment of passion – ” at this point Lavi’s voice became a heated whisper, “– promised that he wouldn’t leave. But then maybe he found out that Allen was in love with Mana and that was the final straw and he killed him then killed himself.” An excited gleam lit up his green eye and he shook with barely uncontained glee. “This house is the story for a twisted romance if I ever did hear one!”

Silence followed Lavi’s short anecdote and Lenalee and Kanda shared a glance. The redhead didn’t seem that perturbed though. “Maybe it’s luck that we got locked in here!” he said. “We never would have known this!”

“Lavi,” Lenalee said and he turned his excited gaze to her. “If he thinks _we_ are _Allen_ , shouldn’t we be scared for our lives? He could _kill_ us. If he doesn’t want us to leave, if he’s reliving what he went through before committing suicide, he could very well be mistaking us as his lost lover, and what will happen if, say your story is correct, we hit the point where Neah figures out Allen was in love with Mana? He would come after _us_. We already saw that he can move things. He has power.”

The excited energy seemed to drain from Lavi’s body. It was obvious that, being caught up in the whole this-house-is-haunted-and-has-a-tragic-love-story thing, that he had completely missed this point. Lenalee, being one of the most level headed people Kanda knew, had probably thought of this from near the very beginning. For being such a smart guy, Lavi could be incredibly stupid sometimes.

Without waiting for a reply she unzipped the sleeping bag and slipped inside, laying down. She looked at the two of them. “If I get killed sometime tonight, I might as well be well-rested,” she said, leaving Lavi gaping at her as she hid her face with the sleeping bag and her hair. It seemed like a ridiculous thing to say at a time like this, but Kanda knew she was trying to cope with the fear.

“Can you believe her?” Lavi asked, looking up at his friend.

“She’s scared too,” he said, well aware that the girl was between them and could hear them clearly. “But she’s keeping it cool. A lot cooler than you.”

“I’m teetering between horrified and ecstatic; it’s a rough ride,” Lavi said as he slipped into his sleeping bag as well. The Japanese college student could see the tremor in his hand as he did so and the way he shuffled across the floor just a little so that he could be closer to Lenalee. Looking down at his friends, he wondered if they really would die, or if they would be walking out of this house tomorrow morning. He didn’t want to wake up to see his best friends dead, carved into pieces, with the blood seeping through the floor. He didn’t want a realtor to find them weeks later, or a gardener watering the tulips, or some kids who snuck out here to smoke weed because no one lived out here.

He had already decided he wouldn’t be able to sleep and so he’d might as well watch over his friends as they did. As quietly as he could, he moved one of the heavier crates Lavi had brought up and used it to lean against, so he could still be close to them but still could sit up comfortably. He caught Lavi’s green gaze for a moment before the redhead settled down in his sleeping bag and closed his eye, assuming a position very similar to Lenalee’s. Having nothing else to do, Kanda slipped into the sleeping bag and set Allen’s journal on his lap and opened it to a random page and started to read.

The scribbled handwriting was illegible in some places, written with such excitement or distress that his pen had never left the page. If he looked carefully, he could make out a few words, like ‘ _party_ ’ or ‘ _Mana_ ’ or ‘ _April 13 th_’. Other times whole pages were clear, neat, as if he had forced himself to write slow and careful, as if he _wanted_ it to be read. Or maybe it was for himself, so he could reread it again later. Soon he had lost himself in the entries of horror and vague excitement and daily tedium.

“It is impolite to read someone’s personal journal, you know that right?”

The soft voice scared Kanda so bad that he nearly dropped his flashlight onto Lenalee. It would have no doubt woken the girl and he didn’t want to do that. How she and Lavi could sleep at a time like this he would never know. As it happened, he was able to catch the flashlight before hitting his friend with it and slowly turned to face the voice.

It was Allen.

Allen was seated a few feet away, watching him. His hair shown like quick-silver in the dim room and his gloved hands sat clasped relaxed in his lap. Kanda couldn’t help but stare. Allen was dead. He was a ghost. But he was just sitting there politely. _A ghost._

“I…what?”

Allen nodded his vaguely transparent head in the direction of the journal on Kanda’s lap. _I can just see the window through him._ “My journal. You’re reading it,” he said, a small, amused smile curling his lips. When Kanda did nothing but stare, he sighed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t hurt anyone. It isn’t really my personality.”

Kanda swallowed and tried to regain some of his poise. He slowly closed the journal and set it on the ground beside him. “Well, we’re stuck here. Trying to fit the puzzle together, if that might help us get out, but that’s really their jobs. I’m…keeping watch. Needed something to do. And my cell doesn’t work right now.”

Allen’s head went to the side, a blank look on his ghostly pale face. _Of course he doesn’t understand what you’re talking about, he’s from the 19 th century_, Kanda thought and pulled his phone from his pocket. He pressed the button on the side and it woke. Lenalee was right, technology and ghosts didn’t go well together. The screen glitched several times before it unlocked for him and he didn’t even have emergency service. “It’s our telephones.”

The ghost peered closer at it with interest. He seemed much different than the ghost of Neah, who was stuck in his loop. Allen just seemed to be stuck _here_. He reached out a hand and touched the phone, fingertip just briefly disappearing in the screen. It flashed violently. “Is it supposed to do that?” he asked as the screen flickered spastically.

Kanda shook his head and put it back into his pocket, hoping that it would work once they got out of here. _If we get out of here_. He turned his attention back to the figure seated next to him.

How long had he been sitting there, beside him? It could have been mere minutes, or it could have been an hour. He rubbed his forehead for a moment. _How long was he watching me read about his daily life? How long had they been sitting together, and I didn’t know?_

He was oddly calm. He knew he should be scared but he just wasn’t. It just didn’t feel right to be scared and so he wasn’t. Allen wasn’t angry, he didn’t extrude wrath or intent to harm. “Did you hear what we’ve been talking about?” he asked. He rubbed the back of his neck momentarily until he realized what he was doing then dropped his hand into his lap.

“No. I was…stuck,” he murmured. “What were you and your companions speaking of?” He smiled.

_Stuck. What does he mean by stuck?_

“Uh, that…well…that you were Neah’s lover,” Kanda said, clearing his throat. That had been incredibly uncomfortable to say and he wasn’t sure why. Allen’s head went to the side just a little and a smile curved his pale lips for a moment.

“Oh yes,” he said. “That is true.”

Kanda stared and Allen brushed hair from his face. _I’m talking to a ghost. I might die because of a ghost. What happened to my normal life? It’ll never be normal again._ He looked away for a moment but a second later he was gazing at the figure before him, like he had never looked away. It didn’t feel like he had.

 “Why are you looking at me like that?” Allen asked, leaning back a little bit. He was now scowling, the smile that had been gracing his features now gone.  “Just because I was lovers with a man…” This seemed silly to Kanda. Why should that matter at all? It just _was_.

“No,” Kanda said. “Not that. Definitely not that. Just that I’m talking to a ghost.”

Allen gave a soft chuckle. “I understand…” A sad smile crossed his face and he looked down at his hands. For a moment, he seemed to flicker and _why is it so damn dark out? There are no stars in the sky behind, no, through, Allen._ He wore clean, white gloves. “I haven’t spoken to someone in many years. For me, this is a thrill. Neah is not good company. Especially since he’s only an imprint of insanity and anger. And every other living person I have tried to speak with is terrified. It hurts me to see people so scared and knowing that I’m the reason. Are you terrified?”

“Not of you,” Kanda said. Obviously the young ghost hadn’t been expecting that answer, because his silver eyes widened and he stared at him. “Of Neah, maybe. But not of you. You’re like us, right?”

Allen looked away and sighed, jaw tensing in barely concealed anger or frustration. “Yes, I am trapped here, forever. In the fear of Neah’s reliving of the past. I can’t move _forward_ , no matter how much I want to. And sometimes that is worse than the past.” He looked tired, and Kanda wasn’t really sure how that was possible, but it was. He looked tired and scared. And without thinking about the fact that ghosts didn’t generally have solid form, he reached out to Allen. _Why am I even trying to comfort this **ghost**? I don’t comfort people. Especially dead people. Lenalee’s the one who speaks to dead people in graveyards and shit._ Something about Allen made him want to though. Something surreal. Supernatural. It just felt _right_ , like what else would he have done?

And then he touched him. Actually _touched_ him. Upon grazing his arm and realizing he had just touched a _ghost_ he jerked back, staring at the young man. His hand was shaking and his heart pounded hard. He felt like he had just gotten shocked with a jolt of electricity.

Allen looked just as shocked and flickered just a little. “You just _touched_ me,” he breathed. Kanda nodded, unblinking, shocked into silence. He watched as Allen rocked onto the balls of his feet and settled onto his knees, closer now. Slowly he raised his gloved hands and brought them to Kanda’s face. The feeling of soft fabric on his cheeks was strange. It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t natural. It made him shake with the sensation, yet he only barely recognized that it was there. But it was there and he could feel it and so could Allen. A wide and blinding smile spread across his face. “I haven’t been able to touch or feel anything but what Neah has put me through since I died!” – _What did Neah put him through?_ – “And I can feel you. I can _touch_ you! You’re so warm.” He rested his hands on Kanda’s cheeks and looked at him. The ghost’s hands shook gently against his skin, just like the shaking in his own hands.

A strong shiver went through Kanda and he didn’t know why. It wasn’t fear so it must be because of how strange this was. A tingling had started from where Allen was touching him. It felt like hot and cold water on his face at the same time. Like if the wind was solid. Like the touch of an animal and you knew it wasn’t huma, because they just touch differently and feel differently. He didn’t move – he couldn’t. And he found himself…comforted. Comforted by this alien touch, and he felt tension leaving his shoulders and felt himself relax. He didn’t want Allen to move away.

But Allen pulled away at the shiver all the same. Kanda caught his wrist, not allowing him to. “No,” he said. He was drawn to the touch of this ghost. This otherworldly being, who was just as trapped and scared as they were but had no chance of breaking free, at least not without help. Allen seemed more than happy to comply with that and shifted just a little closer so that their knees were close to touching

They were both shaking, gentle shivers, and Allen gently entwined his fingers with Kanda’s and Kanda let him. His navy eyes focused on their hands. _I don’t know what I’m doing. Oh god, it feels good._

They sat like this for a moment _or was it an hour?_ before the ghost moved.

“Do you know something I’d like?” he asked, smiling. His gloved thumb caressed the top of Kanda’s hand in a trembling arch. Even though he was close to Kanda, the college student didn’t feel any breath. He could feel no pulse under his fingers, even though they pressed up against where a strong pulse point should be.

_I am **touching** a ghost_.

“No, what?” Kanda asked. He glanced swiftly at the two figures beside him but they were fast asleep. Lavi shifted then stilled. Lenalee breathed evenly. He turned back to face Allen and the ghost was mere inches away. _Had he been farther away?_

“To be embraced again,” he said and leaned in, pressing his lips against the living man’s. Kanda didn’t pull away. Shocked, surprised, he couldn’t. And he was glad he hadn’t. The kiss of a ghost was something that he couldn’t put into words. Unearthly, unbearably sad, hot and cold at the same time, the feeling of drinking cold water after sucking a mint, and all Kanda could do was press into it and relish in the feeling of those unbelievably soft lips.

_I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never…at all. This is unfamiliar, this is weird, why am I doing this? But why wouldn’t I?_ The silver-haired ghost slowly slid his arms around Kanda’s neck and that strong, fierce tingling went through his body, spreading like wildfire and feeling like it too. _He’s so close. He’s so close and I can feel him. Is he warm? He’s not cold. He’s not anything. But he’s everything. What **is** he? I should be scared. Horrified. _

A _ghost_ was kissing him. A _ghost_ was climbing onto his lap. Yet somehow Kanda didn’t care in the slightest because _why should I care this feels so good._

The shaking was more prominent than ever before and Kanda broke the kiss to let out a short harsh laugh, lifting his hand. “I’m shaking like a virgin,” he breathed, looking at Allen. _When was the last time I was embarrassed? When was the last time I felt like blushing? It’s been years, hasn’t it? Yeah, that’s right. I don’t embarrass easily._ His words were met with a wide smile and Allen took his hand in his and leaned forward for another kiss. Kanda pressed a hand against the slowly solidifying body before him.

Kanda prided himself on being good in bed. He had gotten _all_ of his lovers screaming his name as they came. He was used to the feelings and sensations related with sex. Sex was nothing new to him. It took quite a lot to make his head spin. But _this_ was like his first time all over again. Hands shaking and head spinning, he grabbed onto Allen’s waist as the ghost pressed down onto his lap. He could feel gentle tremors under his hands from the ghost. _How does this feel for him? How does it for the ghost? Is it the same, is it different? Am I solid? Is he?_ Allen just gave a small nod and _I didn’t say that out loud, did I?_

In a powerful wave of passion that left Kanda winded, he pulled Allen’s head closer, fingers tangled in that silver hair. He didn’t let him pull away, biting at those soft lips as he felt ghostly hands slide under his shirt. _Don’t stop. Keep touching me. Yes. Keep touching._ When those lips parted he pressed his tongue inside and was assaulted by an overwhelming feeling of pleasure that went straight to his groin. He had never felt this good from a kiss and he didn’t want it to stop. _Oh, fuck. It feels like being thrown into the ocean. How. How does he do this._ For a moment it felt like the world had turned upside down, and maybe it had.

Allen’s polite demeanor had made Kanda think he would be meek and do as his lover wanted. But he was anything but that. He fought for dominance in the kiss, drawing a moan out of Kanda as teeth were raked across his tongue. He didn’t even care if he woke Lavi or Lenalee right now. He didn’t care. _They’re still asleep. Still asleep._ He wanted this. He _needed_ this. He wanted this now, and nothing was going to stop him from having it. Teeth on his lip and a sharp nip on his tongue brought his mind back to the kiss and he had to pull back to breath. He panted hard as he tried to slow his pounding heart, eyes closing for a moment. The world wasn’t quite upside down now, but it was tilted and kept swaying back and forth.

When he felt teeth meet his neck he groaned loudly and opened his eyes. _The room should be dark but it isn’t I can see all of him. All of him is clear. He’s so beautiful._ Allen drew back to look at him, a more than devilish smirk across his face. He leaned forward once more and pressed his lips, his tongue, his teeth against his neck.

“You don’t seem the wild type,” Kanda said, gripping the back of Allen’s neck. “But you are _feisty_.”

This just made Allen grin even more. Gloved hands slid under his shirt once more and pulled it over his head, forcing Kanda to let go of that strong, pale neck. _No, don’t make me let go._ He didn’t take his time in ridding Allen of his shirt, which, upon getting tossed away, disappeared into nothingness. His fingers found the back of his neck seconds later. Without taking time to admire the lean body, he leaned forward and ran his tongue along the young man’s nipple. Allen moaned and arched his back. The bud stood at attention, causing Kanda to moan as he sucked it gently.

_It’s like there are stars on the ceiling. Why are they on the ceiling but not in the sky?_ He rolled his hips up against the firm pressure seated upon him and he pressed his tongue more firmly to that pert nipple.

Kanda ran his hand up Allen’s side slowly, planning on playing with the other hardening bud, but as his hand traveled up his chest, his fingers came across something that caused him to pull away to look. A mass of scar tissue ran down the man’s chest. _Scars. Scars? It’s like quicksilver._

“Ignore that,” Allen commanded and drew his face up for another mind-numbing kiss before Kanda could say anything else. _Of course I’ll ignore it._ Why wouldn’t he ignore it? He would ignore it to the ends of the earth, that was what was asked of him and he would follow it. He gripped those silver locks, dragging the man’s head back just a little and grabbed his left forearm with a hand. “Let go of my arm,” he gasped out in a pain drenched voice. “Don’t touch it.” _Wet…?_

The Japanese man immediately complied, letting go. _It **is** wet, my hand is wet why is it wet _ but Allen didn’t let him look or pull away. So he settled in gripping his slender hip instead. A hum of approval came from the one on his lap. That arm wrapped up around his shoulders. _Does it hurt? Does he hurt? It’s wet. Sticky._

Kanda moaned impatiently. He needed room, breathing room, space for his hardened member. _It almost hurts oh but it’s a good hurt._ As if he knew what he was thinking _maybe he does_ Allen reached down and with nimble fingers undid the buttons and zipper with ease. He heard Allen chuckle softly. “Excited, I see,” he said against Kanda’s lips. _Of course I’m excited._ He growled in reply, grabbing at the 19th century boy’s trousers. After a moment he allowed Allen to take over because he was getting nowhere. His fingers didn’t seem to want to follow what Kanda wanted them to do.

_Move, move yes move I just want to touch him oh god I want to touch him._

And then the ghost was naked. He was pale. So pale. But so very solid now – Kanda couldn’t see anything through him. His cheeks were flushed a light pink, the only real color on Allen. And suddenly Kanda’s hands were shaking again, as he stroked one muscular thigh and fingered a hipbone. The world had somersaulted once more but he didn’t care.

“I want you,” Allen groaned out, rocking onto his knees. He wrapped his arms around Kanda’s neck and spoke in his ear, allowing his lips to caress the sensitive skin there. “Give yourself to me. Now.” _He wants me as much…as much…as I want him. Oh fuck yes._

Kanda moaned loudly at those words and the tongue now teasing the shell of his ear and spread Allen’s ass, pulling his hips flush against his body. The ghost let out a soft whimper as his erection slid across his entrance without penetrating him. _It feels so damn good I want to feel him._ Kanda’s breathe was coming out in harsh pants and he was hardly able to keep his hold on Allen’s hips steady. He needed to calm himself down, but he just couldn’t. _I don’t need to hold on he’s got me oh god._ He pressed one trembling finger into Allen, past the muscles there, and probed deep. He rocked up against the ghost’s body as he thrust his finger deep, deeper, _deeper_ and the ghost moaned and moved forward and took hold of Kanda’s ear with his teeth. _No, no I need you. I need you now. **Now.**_ He pulled his finger from the tight entrance and spread Allen’s ass once more. Allen’s thighs shook against his hips as he sat back and seated himself fully onto Kanda’s cock.

“Hn oh my god,” Allen moaned out in a voice that sounded more than alive. It sounded so good. It felt so good.

Kanda’s breath hitched as he entered the Victorian man. It was unimaginably wonderful, hot and tight and _oh god_ _this is all I ever want_. Before he knew it, he was up to the hilt and he had to rest his forehead on Allen’s shoulder to calm himself.

And then he began to move and forgot everything else. He forgot about the upside down room and his friends sleeping on the ceiling and the starless sky. Allen moved with him, hips rotating in such a skillful way that it made Kanda’s head spin and he knew he wouldn’t last long at all. _Oh, fuck, yes. Don’t stop. Not at all. Never stop. I never want this to end._ This boy was sin of the flesh reincarnated. His hair shown like mercury in the dark _but I can see all of him_ room. Everything about him screamed for men and women to follow him, to want him, to lust after him. The way his hips moved and gyrated, the pale torso and flexible spine that arched and bowed in pleasure, the way his tongue flicked out between his teeth and lips as he moaned. _All I want is-is you._

Kanda couldn’t focus on anything but the intense, otherworldly feeling that filled him. The pleasure was so intense he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t yet cum and he didn’t want it to end. _So close no, too close. Want. Need. Oh my god._ He gripped Allen’s hip tighter and knew that if this young man was alive he’d leave bruises on the perfect skin. That alabaster, marble white skin and he wanted it to bruise. Allen didn’t seem to mind the pressure though, because he just forced himself down even deeper with a moan and a toss of his head.

He pulled the spirit flush against his chest, movement becoming more and more erratic as he felt himself nearing his peak. _I can’t. Can’t. Think. Everything is him how have I lived without him._ He thrust into that body with abandon, unable to hold back, unable to contain himself, body moving of its own accord. And Allen was screaming in pleasure, riding his cock deep and hard.

It was too much, all too much. The feeling of ice and fire, the inhuman pleasure, it all exploded through him as he came deep within Allen. He tried to breath but was clutching the young man too tightly to his chest to do so easily, but he didn’t want to let go. _Can’t let – let go. Never let him go. Never no._ He had never felt like this before. Eyes clenched tight, he held on through his orgasm, unsure that if he let go if he’d drift away or not. Allen came with the last few thrusts Kanda was able to muster, his back arching in an amazing show of flexibility and strength. The room spun in lazy circles and _were those stars in the sky again?_ Finally Kanda let go of Allen, sucking in deep breathes, eyes closed tightly.

 

A loud scream of pain echoed through his ears and he sat up swiftly, eyes opening. Allen was gone. No sign of what had happened – _did that just happen?_ – were left besides his shirt laying beside him. He tugged in on quickly and looked around, fumbling for his flashlight. Again, the scream, muffled by walls, hit his ears. He looked down at his friends and saw them sleeping peacefully. They didn’t hear it? The howls of pain? He tossed his sleeping bag aside and ran from the room. He needed to find where the screaming was coming from.

Down the hall he ran, to the room he had thought was the wrong size. It was empty, but the screaming still could be heard, louder now. It stopped, to be replaced with harsh pants and groans of pain. Kanda knew it was coming from somewhere around here. _There is something wrong with this room!_ He felt along the wall where the sound was strongest and found something he had missed before. The wall pushed _in_ just a little. He gritted his teeth and forced his body against the wall panel. It gave way easier than he had been expecting and he fell into a room hidden behind the wall.

The smell of blood hit his nose as he sat on the floor in the wall’s broken rubble and he looked up. The room matched the length of the room outside. It looked like a secret drawing room or study, from the dusty, rotting furniture and desk and bookshelves. The state was similar to the basement, caked with dust, a dead, shriveled rat laying under the sofa.

And there, a table had been dragged to the center of the room. Blood dripped down the rich umber leg and dribbling off the tabletop.

“Neah, no, please, I’ll s-stay with you, I promise!” Allen cried out, body buckling. Kanda staggered to his feet and could see that the ghost of the young man was tied down to the table. Neah was blocking most of his view and he could only make out the feet of the younger ghost. By the way they twitched and kicked, and those cries that ripped from Allen’s through, Kanda knew Neah was torturing him. The sobs forced their way through gritted teeth. Moans got caught in his throat. He was fighting hard to not cry and howl and break down. This man was strong. But pain was filling him so deeply that he could only hold out so much.

Kanda slowly walked down to the table and inched around Neah’s body, dreading what he would see. Neither ghost looked at him and so he guessed he was invisible to them and their repeat of the past. And he nearly hurled at the sight before him. He covered his mouth as he gagged, stomach rolling and twisting. He sucked in quick breathes through his fingers. The metallic smell of the blood didn’t help and he swallowed the rising bile.

Neah held a knife gently in his hand. “It is much too late for that, Allen,” he hummed and lowered the knife once more to Allen’s left arm. Kanda watched – _just look away, just fucking **look away** god fucking damn it! _ – as the older man made another deep cut into the younger man’s arm. Allen closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth, holding his breath. And then slowly, using a set of bloodstained forceps, Neah  started to _peel_ the skin from the silver haired young man’s arm. Using his knife, he sliced at the membranes attaching skin and muscle. He pulled at the skin, rough and harsh, as if the simple act of flaying wasn’t enough and the membrane strained and pulled before ripping. Allen tried to hold the pain in, tried to grit his teeth and stop himself from crying out, but he just couldn’t. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he turned his face away from Neah, puffing out air.

“This is what you get, you little whore,” Neah purred, leaning down. He brushed a bloody finger against Allen’s cheek, wiping away tears in an otherwise loving gesture. He gripped his jaw gently as Allen let out ragged gasps of pain. Blood welled up in the places where skin was ripped from muscle, running across his pale arm, soaking into the cherry-wood table, into Neah’s shirt cuffs, dripping onto the floor.

“I never cheated on you, Neah,” Allen choked out, eyes tightly closed. He was pale. So very pale. Neah shifted from foot to foot and Kanda could hear the sound of shoes in liquid and his stomach rolled again. “I l-loved, but never. I would never.” His hand twitched and clenched, as if wanting to reach out to Neah. Even after all that this man had done, Allen was reaching out to him, to comfort the man. _To save him._ What _was_ this young man? An angel? A saint? Kanda watched as Neah wavered just a moment, fingers falling slack on the knife, but it only lasted a second and it was obvious Allen hadn’t caught it.

Neah sneered at him and pulled back. “I don’t believe you. You wanted to leave! Even before he left me, _you_ wanted to leave me. Even though you _promised_.”

“Neah, please,” Allen’s voice was soft. Silver eyes glazed, his chalk-white lips fluttered with words he couldn’t quite get out as he tried to speak again. All that came out was a soft whimper-like noise of a dying animal.

Neah just snarled and brought the knife down onto Allen’s upturned wrist, violent and uncontrolled. It cut clean through the skin, clean through muscle, through blood vessels and tendons. Kanda could just glimpse, as Allen spasmed and twisted as the muscles and nerves were severed, the gleaming whiteness of bone.

The gore and mess and blood was one thing. It was sickening, but Kanda wasn’t squeamish. He had seen blood in person before and he had been fine. He had seen this when Lavi had gotten hit by a car by a crazy rich kid and punctured something in his leg. Lavi had been close to passing out and Lenalee called 911 as Kanda tried to calm his friend and slow the bleeding before the paramedics reached them. But this…No, it was the fact that he couldn’t do anything. He was sure that if he tried, he’d go right through the two, and maybe even the table, in this repeat of history. And he felt sick. So sick. He gagged again. How many times had Allen relived this? Did he remember each and every time? Each time that Neah snapped and tied him to the table and slowly skinned him as punishment, did he remember?

“You promised,” Neah whispered, voice hoarse, full of love. Kanda’s stomach churned violently and he clenched his teeth together.

Allen’s eyes were glazed. His lips parted just a little. “I…did…love…you…” he whispered out. That cut had done it. A cut favored with suicides, allowing more than enough blood to leave the body as the heart pounded. He had already lost blood, and that had just been too much. Kanda watched as the light died in those beautiful silver eyes and how the chest stilled from its pained heaving. And he watched as Neah broke even more.

“No. Come back. You promised not to leave me!” he choked out and dropped the knife. It fell into the puddle of blood on the floor in a thick sort of sound. “You promised. _Come back you promised_.”

He was truly insane, crying at the corpse of his lover to come back, sobbing at the man he had just butchered and killed. Kanda could see just how insane he was and he couldn’t take it anymore.

“You fucking killed him, you motherfucking bastard,” Kanda yelled at the ghost who was doubled over the silent body still tied to the table, blood still dripping from the wounds. “You sick bastard.” Neah pressed a desperate kiss to Allen’s lips then looked up at Kanda. Blood shown crimson on his lips, and all the ghost did was stare.

The whole scene was too much. The blood. The chunks of flesh and skin and bits of muscle sitting on the table and on the floor, surrounded by blood. The look of pure rabid, psychopathic horror and brokenness in Neah’s eyes and the way Allen’s blood was smeared on his lips. Allen laying still and unbreathing on the table, eyes half lidded in a stare that would never change.

He staggered forward and grabbed for the table as the world spun dangerously. He caught the edge of the rotten wood and he closed his eyes, trying to breathe without hurling. When he opened his eyes, the table was standing, broken in half, the scene he had just witnessed gone.

He heard hurried footsteps and the calling of his name, but he didn’t quite comprehend it. The side of the table was stained, the floor was stained, the wooden boards were _warped_. He fell to his knees, still holding the side of the table, and vomited.

“Kanda! Kanda, where the _hell_ are you?”

“Yu, you had better not have been killed by the ghost, you’re freaking me out!”

Heaving for air, he looked up as beams of light shown through the broken entrance to the secret room. The hint of blood hit his nostrils and he gagged, doubling over again. His body shook with the dry-heaves, but nothing else came up.

Lavi broke a larger hole through the wall, sending wood and dust and mildewy air everywhere. Kanda leaned back on a hand, sitting down, eyes closing as he panted. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Kanda!”

His friends rushed to him, carefully skirting the puddle of sick before kneeling beside him.

“We woke and you were gone,” Lenalee said and when he finally looked at her, her eyes were wide. “And then we couldn’t find you. You didn’t respond when we called your name.”

Running a hand over his face, Kanda took a deep breath of the dust filled air.

“Hey man, you haven’t thrown up in years, what the hell happened? How’d you even find this room?” Lavi asked, glancing around slowly. He watched the redhead take in the rotten couch, the decrepit desk and bookshelves, the broken table and chairs. And he watched as his friend did a double take with his flashlight onto the table and the floor. He had seen the stain. “It’s…this is above where…right?”

Kanda nodded, pushing Lenalee’s hand away. He was _fine_.

Really, he was anything but fine, but he didn’t want to be coddled. “I saw it,” he said and his voice didn’t sound like his own voice. It sounded like someone else was using him to speak. He cleared his throat and made a face at the taste of bile still in his mouth.

“Saw what?” Lenalee whispered.

“What the fuck do you think? I saw Neah kill Allen,” Kanda snarled and Lenalee drew back. Immediately he felt guilt wash over him for snapping at his friend and he ran a hand through his hair, pushing back his bangs back onto his head for a moment. “Sorry.”

The young woman just shook her head. He knew he was forgiven for startling her and he just closed his eyes again.

“What did he do to the kid?” Lavi breathed and Kanda sent him an icy glare and he closed his mouth with a snap, falling quiet. For a while they just sat there in silence.

Lenalee was the one to break the silence. She stood and said, “Let’s get out of this room.” Taking Kanda’s arm and ignoring his noncommittal sound of protest, she dragged him from the secret study. Lavi was close behind, although he lingered for a moment, only to have Lenalee grab his arm as well. She dragged the two young men out into the hallway. “We are getting out of this house _now_ ,” she said.

Kanda knew that she would find a way out. He knew that tone of voice. That tone of voice was the don’t-you-fucking-dare-get-in-my-way voice. She had passed the point of fear and terror and was now determined and angry, and an angry Lenalee was not something he enjoyed seeing. Lavi didn’t speak against her, knowing that voice as well. He just shuffled back to the room where the sleeping bags lay abandoned and started to roll them up.

The three friends were quiet as they cleaned up their things, Lavi shoving more books and papers into his backpack. Kanda’s silence was due to his reeling thoughts. Lenalee’s was her anger, and the two boys could almost _feel_ it crackling off her. And Lavi didn’t dare speak up.

“Come on,” Lenalee commanded, hands falling onto her hips as she looked at the two of them.

“But I want more—”

“We are leaving _now_ if I have to carry you out and you _know_ I am strong enough to do that. Do not test me, Lavi,” Lenalee hissed and Lavi’s shoulders slumped. They followed the young woman down the stairs and to the entryway. She handed the sleeping bag off to Lavi and reached for the doorknob.

Kanda didn’t know if he wanted it to open or not. Part of him wanted to leave this fucked up house, leave the tormented souls trapped within it, and forget the tortures he had seen. View it as just another horror movie Lavi had dragged him to. Go back to his routine. But another part of him couldn’t just _leave_ Allen to relive that again. For years to come. Forever, until something else broke the curse that Neah had undoubtedly created when he committed suicide, and how long would that be? Would it take the house being destroyed? The room? How did one break the chains holding a ghost?

The door opened and Lenalee let out her breath and smiled a little.

“Why’s he letting us out now?” Lavi asked, looking nervous to cross the threshold, as if fearing he’d be slammed back inside. And who was Kanda to say that that wouldn’t happen. Lenalee took a tentative step across the threshold.

It seemed he was the only one to hear the dull thud of a chair falling back and the snap of a rope drawing taut by the weight of a body, because neither of his friends turned. “Because he’s too busy killing himself,” Kanda said through gritted teeth, looking over Lavi’s shoulder. The hanging figure of Neah swung gently from the ceiling, a chair laying toppled underneath him. Lavi looked over his shoulder as well.

“We’re going _now_ ,” Lenalee gasped out and grabbed both of their arms once more and ran from the house. Lavi tripped on the steps but the young woman didn’t let go of their arms until they reached the car. In the not-so-pitch-black of the outside, they could see the hanged body still swinging.

Lavi fumbled for his keys and started the car and soon they were out of the driveway, out of the neighborhood, back to the center of the city.

Kanda watched his friends. Lavi’s hands were trembling just a little on the steering wheel and he was reminded of the way his own hands shook when he had gripped Allen’s hips. He gritted his teeth and looked out the window. Early birds were waking up, to start the bread and open grocery stores. He shot a glance at the clock in the dash and 4:13am blinked back at him in the comforting green glow of technology and habit.

“Let’s stay together for the rest of the night,” Lenalee suggested and Lavi nodded immediately. Kanda didn’t care but he thought it was probably a better idea. The redhead turned towards Kanda’s apartment, since both Lenalee and Lavi had roommates and they didn’t want to disturb them. Plus Kanda had more than enough room for the three of them.

They ended up piling into his bed. Being a king, there was more than enough space, which was good because Lavi sprawled when he slept. Lenalee lay between them, just like back at the house. Kanda didn’t know if that was so he didn’t have to lay beside Lavi and end up punching him in the face for hogging the bed, or if she just wanted to be safely between them, or something completely different, but he didn’t care what reason. He was actually glad for the presence of the two others in his bed and was able to fall asleep, albeit fitful and nightmare filled.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that I haven't updated this in forever! D: This chapter was even finished, I just needed to edit it and I just didn't have the time, or if I had the time, I didn't have the motivation to, until now. So here you are, Chapter 3 of Never Leave Me.  
> Also, pardon my Supernatural references. I just couldn't help myself.

Chapter 3

 

 “We need to go back,” Kanda said as he sat down across from his friends at the table in the library. Lenalee was pouring over a History of Dance book and Lavi was scribbling something in his notebook, tongue between his teeth as he worked. The two looked up at him with unconcealed shock.

It had been two weeks since their night in the Campbell house. Life had gone back to normal surprisingly quickly. They still went to class, Lavi still teased Kanda and Kanda retaliated with blunt force or abusive language and Lenalee would step in to break it up. They hung out, went out drinking, studied – Lavi and Lenalee did, Kanda didn’t actually _study_. They had service on their phones and texted and played Angry Birds or Tetris and posted shit statuses on Facebook (not one about the house though).

But Kanda hadn’t been able to forget anything, even as he drowned in his normal life. He wouldn’t admit it, but he had had nightmares about what he had seen. They seemed to be getting worse. His mind was magnifying the horrors Neah had done to Allen and by the end of that second week he woke in a cold sweat, having just watched Neah hack Allen up, but not before skinning him _completely_. Allen had been alive the entire time, pleading and moaning, whispering words of forgiveness and comfort, until Neah decided the game was done. And he needed it to stop, so he needed to do something. The only thing he could think of doing was going back and trying to free Allen.

The three of them hadn’t spoken about it since that night. He thought Lenalee wanted to forget the whole thing, and Lavi didn’t want to bother them. He had all of the things he had taken from the house, after all, and had probably gone into research mode to satisfy his own curiosity.

“What?” Lenalee deadpanned. “You must be joking.”

“Funny, you _look_ like Kanda,” Lavi said.

Kanda scowled. “I’m fucking serious,” he said. “Haven’t you guys been thinking about it?”

“I try not to,” Lenalee said simply and turned back to her book.

He looked at his redheaded friend, who shifted and rubbed the back of his neck before nodding. “I’ve been poking through the things I brought home—” _I knew it._ “—and I can’t really…make myself forget about what happened there. Plus I want to know what Neah did to Allen.” He looked at Kanda intensely.

Kanda was still not willing to say what had happened and ignored Lavi’s stare and statement. “So, did you find anything else out?” he asked, leaning back in the library chair. He crossed his feet under the table and watched his redheaded friend intently.

“The two brothers are buried in their own private cemetery behind the house? What do you want me to say? I have some family tree things, they were never married and never had kids, so I’m pretty sure Allen _was_ Neah’s lover,” Lavi said. “Why do you want to go back _anyway_? You were the one who saw all that shit.”

“Allen was Neah’s lover,” he replied, quietly, realizing he had never really told his friends about that. Not that he would tell them he had had sex with a ghost. There was no way in hell he’d tell Lavi that, he’d never hear the end of it, the never-ending questions, the teasing, the…everything.

Lavi dropped his pen. “You _talked_ to him and didn’t tell us?” he asked. Kanda just glowered and cleared his throat.

“That’s why we need to go back. Because of what I saw,” Kanda said and stuck his hands into his pockets. He felt the thick paper of Allen’s photograph against his fingers – he had been carrying it around for those two weeks.

“You wanna free them?” Lavi asked.

“Allen. I want to free Allen. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Neah, the sadistic fucker,” Kanda snapped. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “How do you free a ghost?” He looked at his friends. Lavi was watching him intently, with a strange sort of curiosity that was normally reserved for others, when he was trying to figure someone out. Lenalee was trying, and failing, to focus completely on her book and ignore the talk going on beside her.

“I _did_ look that up,” the redhead said and opened his bag, pulling out a small journal. Kanda had seen it many times before. It was the book Lavi kept with him at all times, in case he needed to write something down. He needed to record _everything_. The pages were overflowing, and it was impossible to read – Kanda knew, he had tried. The redhead flipped it open to some of the most recent pages. “There are a couple different things I found regarding ghosts. They don’t like iron. The Fae don’t like it either, I found out.”

“Fae?”

“Faerie folk,” Lenalee commented then snapped her mouth shut, obviously reminding herself that she didn’t want to be involved. Lavi grinned across the table at Kanda.

“Salt. They _hate_ salt. Draw a circle, they can’t cross it.”

“All of this seems to be for _fighting_ ghosts, not releasing them,” he replied, frowning.

“I know, I know. I’m getting to it. I read a bunch of different books, old folklore and mythology books, and all of them say to burn the bones of the ghost. Some say you have to salt them, others say you just have to dig them up and burn them, and that should work.”

Lenalee snapped her book shut. “You got that from _Supernatural_ ,” she said, looking Lavi straight in the face. “You didn’t find that in any book.”

“Well, they _could_ have it right, couldn’t they? And I do know for a fact that ghosts don’t like iron and salt. _That_ was in everything I read,” Lavi said and then continued. “Some actual legends I read included purifying the house with sage, I think. Digging up the body and pouring holy water on it. One time, the priest even cut off the man’s head, before reburying the body, which worked. There’s really not all that much about _freeing_ ghosts. Or getting rid of an angry one. Just about, well…asking nicely.”

“Asking nicely?” Kanda asked, eyebrows rising.

“Yeah,” the redhead replied. “Ask them to leave. Or explain that they’re dead.”

“Allen knows he’s dead,” he said. “And do _you_ want to just walk up to Neah and ask him nicely to leave the house? Do you really think that would work?” He ground his teeth together, giving Lavi an icy look.

“I _know_ ,” Lavi said. “Look, I did research and that’s all I got. There are too many phony websites with horrible black backgrounds and lime green font layouts saying shit about ghosts, and there’s no way of telling if it’s real or not. And I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with two different spirits. An angry one and a passive one, Neah and Allen.” He closed his journal and slipped it back into his bag. “And who knows if they’ll react like a European ghost, or, say, a Chinese ghost! It’s not like I’m an expert on this shit, Yu. I’m just an enthusiast. I never expected to actually _see_ a real ghost.”

Kanda rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Lavi,” he said. He could see that his friend would just keep rambling. “We can _try_ some of those things, can’t we?”

“I still think we should start with salt and burning,” Lavi said.

“You are getting information from a television show that also has angels, gods and demons, for crying out loud. Stop citing _Supernatural_ as a viable source of information! I am almost positive that Lucifer would not refer to himself as ‘Luci’, if he even exists!” Lenalee exclaimed.

Both men stared at their friend. Kanda had no idea what she was talking about, not having seen the show, but Lavi looked oddly proud. “You’ve gotten so far!” he said, grinning widely “I thought you didn’t like it.” Lenalee glanced away, a light blush on her cheeks and Lavi smirked. “Oh, I see. Which one, Sam or Dean?”

“Oh Christ,” Kanda snarled. “I am talking about something serious, and you are talking about a fucking television show with angels! You didn’t see what I see. Would you just shut the hell up about the stupid show?”

Lavi fell into a shocked silence, staring at Kanda. “Okay…sorry, Yu. I’ll stop joking around,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were so serious…You’re right, I _didn’t_ see what you saw.”

“Will it make you sober up? I saw Neah fucking _flay_ Allen’s arm before cutting his wrist deep enough that I could see his _bone_. I saw Allen trying to offer _comfort_ to the man who was torturing him. I saw Neah plead with a corpse to not be left alone, to come back to him. Allen remembers each time. He dies each time then comes back. Isn’t that serious enough for you, Lavi?” Kanda exploded. He fell silent, panting with the passion he had just portrayed and an uncomfortably familiar sickening feeling gathered in his stomach and he covered his mouth just for a moment.

He looked up to find the other two staring at them with gaping mouths. Lenalee was pale. She looked away as Kanda seethed, forming fists in his pockets, and covered her mouth. Lavi mouthed at him, seemingly unable to speak. Then he swallowed, looked down at the table for a moment, before looking back up at Kanda. “Yes, that’s serious,” he said. “We might – might as well try everything, since we _don’t_ know what will work.”

“Do we…do we deal with Allen or Neah first?” Lenalee asked, voice weak and small. “Shouldn’t we help Allen first?”

“We have to deal with Neah first,” Kanda said.

“Why?”

“Because he has no reason to still be here?” Lavi said, glancing at Kanda. He nodded a little. “You said he already knows he’s dead. He doesn’t seem to want something. He’s stuck. So that definitely makes me think we have to get rid of Neah, since he’s holding him there.”

“Do you think he’ll try to hurt us?”

“He doesn’t seem to be too keen on hurting _us_ ,” Lavi hummed. “He scared us, is all…You think he would?”

“I think he _can_ ,” Kanda said. “He probably will try if we dig up his corpse.” Watching his friends carefully, he straightened up and settled his hands on the table and waited for their reply. Lenalee looked back down at her History of Dance book, a frown gracing her features as she thought. Lavi just met his gaze with a wide grin and Kanda knew that meant he had him on his side with this. They both turned their attention to the young woman of their group.

“ _Fine_ , I’ll help!” she finally said after Lavi nudged her arm. She glared at the two of them and slipped the book into her bag.

Kanda couldn’t stop the wave of relief from flooding his body, although he was able to hide it from his face. He was glad his two friends had agreed to this. He’d have trouble doing this on his own, no doubt about that. He pushed his chair back and stood. “We’ll need supplies.”

 

Collecting the supplies they would need didn’t take long. Lavi handled most of it, actually. The idiot was so excited at the prospect of getting rid of an angry ghost that he went a little over the top. Kanda stepped in when the 10th container of salt went into their cart and forced him to put some back. Because really, did they need ten pounds of salt? Maybe, but it seemed excessive to him. Their cart piled up with a rather disturbing array of items, from lighter fluid to shovels and more batteries for flashlights. The cashier stared at the items as she scanned each one before giving the two of them a stare that plainly said she thought they were insane for some reason or another.

Lenalee met them a little later with her flashlight and a jug of water that she explained was holy water. Lavi gaped at her until she hit him on the shoulder. “It really isn’t all that hard to get,” she said, putting it in the redhead’s bag, along with the salt, lighter fluid and matches. He zipped it and slung it over his shoulder.

“I guess we’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” he said as he turned to Kanda.

He nodded and his stomach rolled unpleasantly. He was concerned – not that he’d show it in front of his friends – about how all of this would go down. Was it really alright for them to risk their lives for a dead man? He could take everything and go by himself. Before he even finished the thought, he knew that idea would be shot down before he could get it out of his mouth. Lenalee wouldn’t let him, he knew that for a fact. She was so overprotective of those she cared for and so he didn’t even bring it up.

“You think Allen’s buried with Neah and Mana?” Lenalee asked as the town sped past the windows of Lavi’s car.

“Nah, remember, he just disappeared. I bet Neah hid the body somewhere,” Lavi said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He shot a glance back to Kanda. “You think he knows where his body is?”

“Could ask,” Kanda said, resting his chin on his hand. He wondered if Allen would even show up. He hoped so. It would make things move a little more smoothly if they had someone to speak to. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the photograph. By now the corners were rounded and battered and a crease ran down the center. He wasn’t usually this obsessive, but he couldn’t put it away. Not until he did something about Neah Campbell.

Once they reached the house, the sun was long gone and stars twinkled overhead. The sky was just slightly lighter in the direction of the center of town, where the clubs and bars and restaurants were singing with life. Kanda hefted one of the shovels to rest on his shoulder, holding his flashlight in his other hand.

“Let’s find that graveyard,” he said. He let Lavi take the lead. Around the house they went. He realized they hadn’t seen the back side of the house from the outside before and for a moment he looked it over. There was a porch. Ivy creeping up the side of the building. The grass was trimmed and the hedges were cut. Obviously the gardener had been over recently. They walked past the porch and headed towards the trees that grew close to the house like a wall. He knew that past the house a forest expanded out for many acres. This was the very edge of the town where the forest had yet to be cut down.

“I think it’s somewhere around here,” Lavi said. “The documents said it was behind the house just within the trees.” They continued to walk, sweeping their flashlights back and forth, not wanting to miss anything. Lenalee was the one to spot the white of marble gravestones, off to their left. They had nearly walked past it. Changing course, they came up to the private graveyard.

The fence came up to the young woman’s shoulder, and the gate was rusted shut. It took Kanda hitting it with his shovel to give way and it opened with an ominous creak. The plot of land was small and overgrown and it was apparent that the gardener had neglected it. Two magnificent tombstones stood a few feet apart, each with beautiful angel statues topping the large squares of marble. The angel capping Neah’s  had no head but its wings still stretched from its back, rounded by weather. The trees must have protected them from the majority of bad weather though, since they still were in relatively good shape. The three moved closer so they could read most of what was engraved on the stone.

_Mana Campbell_. _Born_ – the month and day were worn away – _1866\. Died February 26 th, 1896. Beloved Brother and Friend. ‘Never stop moving forward’. _

Lenalee bent down to look at Mana’s tombstone more closely, touching it lightly. Kanda turned his attention to the tomb of his brother. Now that he looked more closely, the younger brother’s gravestone was in much worse shape, which he found strange. “He was only 30 when he died,” she said, glancing up at the other two. “I wonder how he died.”

“Remember, carriage accident. But he was probably sick too,” Lavi said softly. “Didn’t Allen say something about a doctor in one of his entries?” She nodded and looked back at the stone before standing up. Kanda was still focused on Neah’s grave.

_Neah Campbell. Born – 1870. –id September 12 th, 1896. _

“Neah was 26,” the redhead hummed. “He lasted six months before he killed himself.”

“Doesn’t matter. That just means Allen suffered for six months. Let’s get digging.”

In the movies, digging up graves always looked so easy. And maybe, in a cemetery where the graves were taken care of and rid of weeds, it _was_ easier. But _this_ was no walk in the park. Roots of weeds, of dandelions and thistles and tall, thick grass, made the top layer of ground a carpet that took all three of them hacking at it for half an hour before they actually hit dirt. “This is ridiculous,” Lavi huffed, leaning on his shovel. “This is going to take all night.”

“We reached dirt, maybe it won’t take as long now,” Lenalee panted out. She turned back to the task at hand. It was definitely easier once that top layer of roots were out of the way, but it was still hard work. Kanda paused, flexing his fingers to stop them from cramping and looked back at the house. They were still close enough to it to be able to see the building with its empty windows and its porch and ivy and hedges. 

Except the window on the right hand side _wasn’t_ empty. A pale figure stood unmoving there, and even from here, Kanda could tell it was Allen. The silver hair shining in the light of the moon told him that the moment he spotted the spirit. And he could tell that he was watching them dig. “I’ll be back,” he said and stuck his shovel into the ground next to the grave.

“What – Yu, where are you going?” Lavi asked. “You’re just ditching us aren’t you?”

“Sh, Lavi, look,” Lenalee whispered and nudged the redhead. It was obvious that she had spotted the figure standing in the window as well. “Is that Allen?”

Kanda didn’t answer. He just headed back to the house, eyes never leaving the young man. He tried the back door and found that it opened easily. Closing it behind him, he turned to look at the ghost.

“Why did you come back?” Allen asked, arms at his side, face scrunched up in confusion and shock. “Why are you digging at their graves?”

“We’re not going to touch Mana’s,” Kanda said as he crossed his arms. “But we’re digging up Neahs. To…release him.”

Allen’s eyes widened. “Release?”

He nodded and glanced out of the window. He couldn’t quite make out if his friends were digging or not, but they were still there. “The redheaded idiot read up and found some legends of other ghosts and how people got rid of them. We’re going to try it on him. That way you’ll be free.”

Allen didn’t move for a very long time. He didn’t breath, he didn’t blink. All he did was stare at Kanda. He felt unnerved by this and cleared his throat, looking to the side for a moment.

“Why?”

The ghost sounded genuinely confused. By the fact that a living human would help him, would free him from the hell that he had been living through for over one hundred years. Kanda looked up and sucked in swiftly when he found Allen only a foot away. He hadn’t made a sound and now he was so close. Close enough that if he were alive, Kanda should have been able to feel body heat, feel a breath. But there was nothing. And he couldn’t look away from those silver-grey eyes.

“Because you’ve dealt with this long enough,” he said.

Allen’s shocked expression slowly turned into a blinding smile that reached his eyes. “I would be grateful if it were possible,” he breathed, excitement etched within his voice. Then he gritted his teeth and looked away. “If only I were stronger, I could keep walking on my own.”

“Mana said that a lot, didn’t he?” Kanda blurted out and he was shocked at his own exclamation.

Allen looked at him in start. “…What?”

“It’s on his tombstone. _Never stop moving forward_.”

“I…yes. He did,” Allen said. “He always said to never stop, to keep on walking. But I haven’t been able to move since I died. Since _he_ died.”

“You loved him.”

“Yes,” Allen said, eyes burning. “But that’s the past, and –” His voice got caught in his throat as he spun around to look behind him. Kanda took a step back at the sudden movement, the ghost so close as it was. His ghostly body had stiffened to a point of what looked like pain as he looked across the room. And then Kanda saw what he was looking at.

Neah was standing before them, a few yards away, disheveled and heaving. His eyes blazed with madness that could be seen in the eyes of a rabid dog. Madness that had only been there when he had kissed the still warm lips of Allen’s corpse.

“What are you doing here, Neah?” Allen asked, and his voice was higher than it had been, but clear and strong and Kanda was impressed. “This did not happen.”

“Foul people, interfering. They can’t have you, I tell you. You are mine, you promised to me you would never leave me!” Neah snarled out and stepped forward. Kanda saw the glint of a beautiful and lethal looking knife in his hand.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Allen said. “Please, calm down.”

“Calm down? When you’re whoring yourself to _that_ behind you?” Neah spat and Kanda’s eyes widened as those golden eyes focused on _him_. He could see him. And suddenly he felt very scared. His head whipped around to look out to his friends. They were no longer moving. Had they made it to the coffin?

“I’m doing no such thing, Neah,” Allen snarled back. “He is just trying to help. Stubborn, twisted man!” He stepped towards Neah, anger obvious throughout his entire frame.

“My friends. They’ve reached him,” Kanda said brokenly.

“I know,” Allen said. “That’s the only reason for this. He’s scared…”

“I won’t let them take you away, my love,” the maniacal ghost purred as he moved closer to Allen. “I will get rid of these pests, don’t you worry, Allen, pet. They’ll be gone soon enough. They won’t bother us and then you can keep your promise.”

“Neah they are _helping_ us,” the silver haired spirit stated, eyes blazing.

“You’re _dead_ , for fucks sake!” Kanda growled. Neah’s golden gaze shifted to him and there was unsuppressed surprise there, confusion, hatred. And even before the ghost moved he knew he had made a very grave mistake. And then he was slammed against the wall several yards away and his head cracked back against it. He tried to stay standing as he forced air back into his lungs and waited for his head to stop spinning. He leaned against the wall and looked at the two ghosts as his eyes watered.

“Stop this,” Allen commanded. His voice was strong. Wasn’t he traumatized by what the man had done to him? Wasn’t he scared? But maybe there wasn’t much to be scared of. He had gone through the torture more times than Kanda wanted to think about. Maybe he didn’t care. “You’re acting like a child. Think of what Mana would say.”

“He would know what to do, but he’s not here, is he? And maybe it’s good he isn’t, because you would have run off to him, to his bed, to his heart!” he said.

“He is your own brother,” Allen said quietly.

Kanda pushed himself up to a standing position, legs a little shaky. “No, I won’t let you leave,” Neah said, turning his attention back to the only man there with a heartbeat. “You will stay here, so that I know you can never come near Allen.” That unimaginably strong force hit him again and he was forced against the wall once more. He could barely breathe and turning his head seemed to be impossible, but stared Neah down anyway, jaw clenched.

Allen stepped between them, blocking his lover from Kanda.

“My friends will have your fucked up corpse dug up any moment now!” he snarled at the approaching ghost. Allen still hadn’t backed off. “Then we can send you to hell, where you belong!” He smirked as what he said seemed to hit a nerve. Neah’s hand twitched on the knife, and he seethed, gritting his teeth.

“Would you please shut up?” Allen snapped, turning to look at him for just a moment. “You aren’t helping any of this.”

Kanda looked taken aback at being told off and glowered in stunned silence.

“Yes, shut your _boyfriend_ up, before I carve him up,” Neah hissed.

“What, like you’ve done to me?” Allen asked. “Haven’t you had enough of that Neah? Aren’t you tired?”

“I’ve done no such thing!” Neah said. “I’d never hurt you.”

Allen just smiled and jerked up his sleeve. Kanda had to look away as his arm was exposed, the skin cut away, flesh exposed, the deep cut in his wrist, the blood vessels and nerves and tendons shining brightly. Blood dripped down his fingers slowly and hit the floor.

“I didn’t do that,” Neah said, sucking in a swift breath. His amber eyes followed a droplet run down to Allen’s wrist and drop to the floor with a quiet _plunk_.

“But there’s blood on your hands,” Allen pointed out.

Neah looked down. His gloves were stained crimson, as were his sleeves. The knife, the one that had been clean just moments before, was dripping blood onto the floor. A bit of skin clung to the hilt.

What the _hell_ was taking Lavi and Lenalee so long? Kanda tried to look out the window, tried to see the status of the grave digging. But pressed up against the wall by the invisible force had him at the wrong angle and all he could see were trees and the sky. He tried to take a deep breath and found that the pressure was hard against his chest and resigned himself to low, shallow inhalations. It made him dizzy.

“But I’d never,” Neah said again. He shifted back and forth between his feet, tensing his hand on the knife.

Allen’s face contorted into pain and dark amusement. It only lasted for a moment, but Kanda was startled when it graced his features. “You’d never what? Hurt me? Don’t you remember? Even _before_ Mana died!” And then, with his bloodied left hand, he rolled up the sleeve on his right arm. All Kanda could see were scars. It would be easily hidden, especially if the young man wore mainly long sleeves. But up his forearm, white scars shone in the dim, ghostly light. Cuts. Burns. Something that looked like it could have been a bite, probably from Allen himself, to quite down a yell.

Kanda felt sick once more. “You are one fucked up bastard,” he hissed at Neah, glaring at the ghost. Neah didn’t look away from Allen, didn’t acknowledge Kanda at all. He gripped the knife tighter, and took a step towards Allen.

“You wanted me to do it, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Have you forgotten everything from your life?” Allen snapped, glaring at the man only inches from him. Could he kill him a different way? Could Neah kill Allen in a way that wasn’t their repeat of history? Kanda pressed against the invisible force and found that it was lessening, slowly dropping its hold on him as Neah focused more and more completely on the silver haired ghost before him. He sagged against the wall when it disappeared then straightened.

“Obviously he has,” Kanda snarled and moved closer to them. The two ghosts turned to him, and he could see annoyance and panic in Allen’s eyes. But he didn’t care. He was done with this shit. He couldn’t stand by and watch Allen speak to the man who had abused and killed him, as if they were discussing the weather. “Get away from him. Get out of this house. Leave.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Neah hissed. “This is _my_ house. Allen is _mine_. You are trespassing and you will leave before I do!”

“I don’t think so,” Kanda growled. Glancing out the window he could see flames between the trees. He was hoping, maybe even praying, that this would work. That burning the bones would work. “I think you’ll the one to leave first.”

Kanda had never been stabbed before. It really wasn’t something you tried to do. Not generally good for your health. He wasn’t quite sure how it had happened, or what had happened exactly. But he knew that that knife, that knife that Neah had been holding in his hand so tightly, that knife that had a piece of Allen’s skin hanging off of it, was now lodged to the hilt in his shoulder. The force of the attack made him stagger back, and before his nerves told him he should be in pain, he let out a sigh of relief. It was too far to the side to have hit anything important. He could feel the blood, but couldn’t feel much else. And Neah was screaming before him, writhing and gasping and grabbing at himself.

The college student felt the unnatural touch of Allen as the ghost dragged him backwards, causing him to stumble in a numb sort of way, unsure exactly how to react. He knew his shoulder should be screaming in pain, and maybe it was and maybe his mind had detached itself from that part of his body, because all he could do was stare at Neah as the ghost howled in pain and horror. He ripped at his clothing in an attempt to stop the burning, to quiet the pain, then burned into nothing. A wisp of smoke curled through the air.

As the light faded, with the psychopathic ghost’s screams still ringing in his ear, Kanda could feel the pain. It hit him like a train and he gritted his teeth hard to try and stop from making a sound, closing his eyes tightly. Cool, tingling hands touched around his shoulder and took hold of that ghostly knife and slowly pulled it from Kanda’s shoulder. “You’re an idiot,” Allen said.

Kanda opened his eyes just for a moment to focus on the ghost before him, and that face was creased with lines of frustration and worry. He opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by the door. Both jumped and looked around when it opened and slammed against the wall. Hurried footsteps told him that Lavi and Lenalee had joined them.

“You took…your…god damn…time,” Kanda said. He didn’t remember sinking to his knees, but that’s where he was and he didn’t think he could quite get up just yet. The faint pressure of Allen’s touch disappeared and he looked to his side to see the ghost pulling away.

“Kanda you’re hurt!” Lenalee cried out.

“Glad you noticed that,” Kanda said through gritted teeth. She moved forward, glancing for a moment at Allen’s silent figure. She tore her scarf from around her neck and pressed the cloth to the injury. “Fuck, Lenalee!” he snarled out as pain shot through his chest and arm at the added pressure.

“We have to stop the bleeding, it’s the only way,” Lenalee said. “Focus on something else. We got rid of Neah.” Even though it hurt, Kanda trusted Lenalee with medical emergencies. She learned quite a lot from her elder brother, who worked at a local hospital.

“Yeah, _after_ he stuck me with a knife,” the Japanese man said. As Lenalee pulled her scarf away to inspect his shoulder, flashlight held close, he tried to focus his attention elsewhere to try and ignore the throbbing pain. So he focused on Allen.

“So you’re Allen,” Lavi was saying, curiosity burning in his face.

Allen nodded and smiled, offering his hand. The redhead paused, gaze flickering to the ghostly hand offered to him, then shrugged and reached out towards it. Kanda watched as their hands met. Momentarily, it seemed that the two were able to grip each other’s hands. And then Lavi’s hand went through Allen’s, and they both dropped their arms looking disappointed.

“Neah’s gone. I guess,” Lavi said, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around. “We did pretty much everything. Dug him up, poured holy water over the bones, salted them, then burned them. Seems to have done the trick.”

Allen nodded and for a moment a look of pain crossed his face.

“Do you… know where your body is?” Lavi asked. The way he shifted on his feet told Kanda he felt awkward asking such a question. Finally something that made the redhead feel awkward. It took a lot. But asking someone who has gone through a lot of shit for over one hundred years where their body is, is bound to make someone uncomfortable.

“No, I don’t know where it is,” Allen said with a sigh and rolled his sleeves down. The redhead had caught a glance and looked over at Kanda for a moment. In the light of the flashlights he looked a little green.

“Ow, Lenalee, stop touching it!” Kanda said, turning to the girl sharply as another strong twinge of pain went through his shoulder. She scowled and returned to pressing her now ruined scarf against the wound and holding it there.

“Stop being a baby,” she scowled.

“A…a _baby_? Lenalee, a ghost just stabbed me,” he snarled, looking at the young woman. She didn’t respond, just kept holding a hand against his shoulder. He hissed under his breath as she raised his arm and carefully wrapped the scarf around the wound as best as she could. She tightened it and he grunted in pain and glared at her. “You’re doing this on purpose,” he hissed.

“I might be,” Lenalee said. “Did he talk back?” She twisted and looked at Allen, who looked a little startled to be drawn into the conversation.

“Yes, he spoke back to Neah,” Allen said and it was obvious he was holding in a soft laugh at the look on Kanda’s face. Lenalee turned back to the wounded man and smirked.

“Makes sense then. You can’t act like a normal person. Ever,” she said and stood up. Offering Kanda a hand, she smiled down at him. He grumbled but took her hand and with her help stood up.

“Shut up,” he growled then turned his focus onto Allen once more.

“So…Uhh, where do we start searching for your body?” Lavi asked, hands in his pockets as he rocked from the balls of his feet to his heels and back again. Allen just gave a shrug, looking between the people before him. Kanda could tell he was a little overwhelmed. A century of being disconnected from living people and now three were speaking to him.

“You two look down here and in the basement, I’ll go check upstairs with him,” Kanda grunted gruffly, jerking his thumb over to Allen and regretting it immediately when the motion moved his shoulder and so jostled his injury. He winced and let his arm hang to his side, trying not to move it as much as possible. If he didn’t move it and ignored it, the pain wasn’t too horrible. Now, Kanda wasn’t a lightweight when it came to pain, but he figured there was something about a fucking _ghost_ blade that just made it hurt more. Lenalee would probably take him to the hospital after everything was done, and for once he wouldn’t complain.

Lavi looked between him and the ghost and stared at them with such intensity that Allen crossed his arms, silver eyebrows raising to be hidden by his hair. Finally Kanda just turned around. “Fine, fine, sounds good, we’ll look down here!” he said as Kanda headed to the stairs. He glanced over his shoulder when he didn’t hear footsteps and found Allen close behind him.

Together they went upstairs and Kanda listened to the muffled sounds of Lavi and Lenalee wandering around the first floor. It seemed the redhead had gotten some of the lights on downstairs and was now thumping around in various rooms while Lenalee searched the other side of the house.

“I loved being around people. They make me smile, especially when I can make them laugh,” Allen suddenly said as they walked. Without realizing it, Kanda was heading towards the secret study. He turned to look at the ghost.

“What?”

“But being around three people at once, who speak to me, who respect me, it’s a bit overwhelming,” he continued on, meeting Kanda’s eye. “So thank you for suggesting we split up. Lavi seems to have a rather intense thirst for knowledge.”

“That’s an understatement,” Kanda growled. “It gets fucking annoying!”

Allen chuckled softly then fell quiet as they walked into the room. He followed Kanda to the hole leading to the secret room and stopped. Upon realizing that the ghost was no longer with him, he turned around. Allen’s chest was heaving and his eyes were wide with panic.

“Stay out here,” he said and left the ghost to go poke around the room alone. It was obvious, then, that Allen wasn’t past what had happened to him. That it didn’t matter that it had happened so many times. He wasn’t used to it. The room had sent him into a panic, and Kanda didn’t want to deal with a panicked ghost. He didn’t know how to deal with a living person having a panic attack; a ghost just seemed so much more complicated.

The light didn’t work in this room and he guessed the electricity had been cut long ago. He started at one end of the room, where bookshelves stood pressed against the wall. Some of the shelves were broken and had spilled the precious books they had contained onto the floor to rot. He kicked some of them with his foot, but all he revealed was mold and rot beneath them, soaking into the floor and warping the boards. He tried to push one of the bookshelves but gave up quickly upon figuring out that it was very solid, very dense wood and would not be moving.

Kanda stopped to read some of the titles of the books, or try to, but it was no use, so he moved along. He crouched down to look under the heavy oak desk. A large mass of cobwebs spoke of a time when insects and spiders still lived here. But no more – maybe it was because of the ghosts. He couldn’t hear anything but his breath and the occasional thuds from his friends downstairs as they searched. He gutted the desk, pulling out the drawers.

He moved chairs and picked through the broken ruminants of the table, kicking over a broken lamp that was in his way. Every time he moved something, clouds of dust flew into the air and he had to cover his mouth with his sleeve so that he could still breath. The Japanese man turned to the couch and crouched down, looking beneath it. Grabbing a piece of broken chair, he nudged the dead rat away from his face so he could look a bit better.

He couldn’t see anything but the sagging underside of the sofa, cobwebs and dust bunnies. He could just catch the glimpse of peeling wallpaper then pulled back and sat back onto his heels, frowning. He really thought that this was where Neah would have hidden Allen’s body. It made the most sense. It was the easiest. He stood up and went to the end of the room, running his hands along the peeling wallpaper, feeling for _anything_.

“I think. I think there’s…another room.”

Kanda looked around to see Allen standing just inside the room. His chest was fluttering swiftly, up-down, up-down, in an unhealthy fashion that would cause a living person to pass out. His fists were clenched and trembling.

“Another?” Kanda asked. “From this room?”

Allen swallowed and nodded. He frowned and a look of pain came across his face. It looked like he was trying to focus on something he couldn’t quite remember. “It’s over…over there… some… somewhere.” He motioned vaguely to the area where Kanda was standing and the young man nodded and renewed his search.

He touched everything. The small table sitting beside the rotting chair against the wall. The bookshelf. The walls. The light fixtures. When nothing came of that, he started to drag things away from the wall. It took him some effort to push the broken table away. He kicked over the chair to get it out of the way and it broke apart the second it hit the floor. He shown his flashlight across the wall carefully as he moved everything. Finally he grabbed a hold of the fetid couch arm and dragged it across the floor to expose the wall behind it.

He looked across the wall and paused. At about hip-height, the decoration of wood and wallpaper in the wall was just a little different, worn and smooth. He knelt down and looked closely. Something dark had stained the wall and wooden trim. Something red. He touched the wooden design in the wall and felt along the surface. The center of the knot gave way and Kanda smirked and pressed in, allowing the wall to swing inwards.

Kanda stood up and slowly pushed it open completely. The strong smell of dust and decay and the hint of something he didn’t recognize hit him as he trained his flashlight around the room. It was very small, much smaller than the one he was still currently standing in. In the center a divan sat, still beautiful in its deep blue velvet covering and dark wood. And lain out atop was the unmistakable form of a body. Long since decayed, flesh eaten by rats and maggots and beetles, all that was really left were the bones. The skeleton seemed to be sleeping, with its head turned to the side and the hands resting on either side of its body. He slowly stepped closer and looked closely at the skull of the skeleton. He could see faint markings engraved into the bone above and below the empty eyesocket.

“That scar went all the way to the bone?” Kanda asked and turned. Allen was standing in the entrance, shaking. He was staring at his body, mouth open. He didn’t seem to hear Kanda so the man dropped it and looked back at the body.

“He just left me here,” Allen choked out and closed his eyes.

“We aren’t going to though,” Kanda said and it came out a little harsher than he had intended it to. He walked across the room and picked up a blanket thrown over the end of the divan. Part of it fell apart as he touched it, but the rest held together and carefully he laid it out on the floor beside the skeleton.

He could feel Allen’s eyes on him as he carefully moved the skeleton to the blanket. As he touched it, it broke apart and he winced but formed a pile all the same. Once all of the bones were on the blanket, he took the corners and folded them and lifted the bundle. For a moment he held it still, hoping that the blanket wouldn’t break. It didn’t, but just in case, he lifted it into his arms and held it against his chest to lessen the stress on the moth-eaten blanket.

Kanda headed out of the secret rooms with the ghost. Allen was on his side, shuddering and shivering, staring at the bundle that Kanda held close. He looked chalk-white and his hair blended into his skin.

As they went downstairs, he called to his friends, “I found him.” The two appeared at the foot of the stairs, Lavi looking particularly dusty. He must have been in the basement. He saw two sets of eyes watch as he joined them in the hall, holding the bundle of bones.

“What do we do now?” Lavi asked, glancing at Allen.

“Take them away,” Allen said quickly.

“Let’s bury them,” Lenalee murmured them. “Alongside Mana.” She lifted her eyes to Allen and he gave her a grateful, weak smile and nodded. She smiled back and moved forward, taking the skeleton from Kanda’s arms. “Come on Lavi, let’s dig a grave for Allen.” With that, she turned and headed to the back door. Lavi frowned and looked at her then to Kanda and Allen.

“But what about Kanda? He should help dig the grave,” Lavi said.

“Not with a hole in his shoulder, he shouldn’t. He’s going to the hospital after this,” she replied and the redhead followed her out of the house. Kanda watched them go then looked at Allen. The spirit seemed to have calmed down now that the bones were gone.

“What do you think will happen?” Kanda asked after a moment.

“Anything will be better than this,” Allen said, turning to the man. He smiled and reached out, touching his cheek. “Maybe I will see Mana again. Or Neah, before everything happened.”

“Why would you want to see him?” he snapped at the ghost.

“You have to learn to forgive, Kanda,” Allen hummed softly. “I think, in whatever afterlife there is, he will be whole and complete, and the man I knew before he went insane. And that man deserves forgiveness, if he asks for it. You can’t hold grudges forever. All it will do is exhaust and haunt you. Isn’t that obvious? Neah has been unable to forgive me for wanting to leave, for falling in love with Mana for so long that he has been stuck in this house and dragged me along with him.”

Kanda listened to the young man silently, feeling the tingling in his cheek from the touch. “I don’t want you to go.” The second the words left his lips his eyes widened in shock and he closed his mouth. _Did I just say that? Why did I say that? It’s not like I’m in love with a ghost…_

Allen just smiled. “It would be really cruel of you to ask me to stay,” he said.

“Ask the idiot, he’ll tell you I’m not kind,” he replied.

“I don’t think you’re as heartless as that though,” Allen said. He stepped forward and cupped Kanda’s face. “Thank you. For freeing Neah. For freeing me.”

“You’re not free yet,” the Japanese man said.

“I can’t thank you _after_ I go, now can I?” Allen asked with a soft chuckle. Kanda didn’t say anything for a long moment, then cradled the back of Allen’s head and drew him close for a kiss.

Allen’s lips were soft and yielding against his and he groaned softly as he felt the soft nibble of teeth. He pulled the ghost closer so they stood flush together, one hand still tangled within Allen’s silver locks, the other resting against his lower back to keep him close. A tongue slid against his lips and he parted them. That same wonderful, sweet, ghostly tongue dove into his mouth. Their tongues twisted together.

Kanda was shaking again and he thought of how ridiculous that was. Was he really that pathetic? He pressed against the small of Allen’s back and the spirit stepped just a little closer. Allen’s gloved hand slid behind Kanda’s head and held him there.

“I hope the afterlife is beautiful,” Kanda breathed as they broke the kiss – really, he was the one to break it. He needed to breath. Allen smiled and brushed his lips against Kanda’s lips, against his cheek.

“So do I,” Allen hummed. “Do you believe in resurrection?”

“I didn’t used to, but I didn’t used to believe in ghosts either,” Kanda stated.

“Well, maybe we’ll meet again,” he breathed and kissed the living man again.

This kiss was soft and mind-numbing and perfect and he couldn’t believe how it broke his heart. He pulled away. “I would like that,” he said hoarsely and Allen smiled. And then slowly, the pressure he was exerting on his back, the pressure of that slim body pressed close, started to disappear. Allen closed his eyes as he slowly disappeared.

“Don’t forget about me,” was the last breath of a whisper Kanda heard before Allen disappeared completely and he was left standing in the room alone. He cleared his throat and shook himself, _very bad decision I fucking need pain killers_ , and left the house to meet his friends. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was lightening. It must be very early in the morning, then. The stars were fading and the moon was going down.

Lavi and Lenalee met Kanda at the edge of the hedges, looking sweaty and dirt covered but content. “He gone?”

Kanda nodded and looked up at the sky. “He just disappeared,” he said.

“He’s somewhere good, I know it. He seemed like a real good guy,” Lenalee said softly. She hooked arms with Kanda and Lavi – who was carrying all three of the shovels – and headed around the house, back to the car.

“Where to now?” Lavi asked. Maybe he felt like Kanda felt: numb, light, content, unsure.

“The hospital,” Lenalee said before either of the boys could say anything else and Kanda grunted in agreement. He could really use a strong dose of morphine or codeine and probably some stitches. The redhead nodded and looked into the rearview mirror, catching both Lenalee and Kanda’s eyes. He grinned widely then started laughing.

Soon the three of them were all laughing. At the fear and pain and sadness and the sheer shock of what had actually happened. At the happiness of being able to help. Kanda was a still a little breathless when Lavi drove up to the hospital and parked in front of the emergency entrance.

 


	4. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading this fanfiction and I hope that you enjoyed it! :D I certainly enjoyed writing it.

 

Epilogue

Kanda staggered as Lavi tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, his friend tightening the grip he had around Kanda’s shoulders and neck. The only ‘apology’ he offered was a giggle and a mumble of ‘oops’ that didn’t really count as an apology, at least not in Kanda’s book. He grinned at the raven-haired college student, who just grunted and wished he could elbow him in the ribs. But he couldn’t, seeing as he was supporting half of his friend’s weight as they walked down the street. He wished he’d walk straight.

He didn’t really have the right to judge Lavi too harshly with his uneven footing though, seeing as the broken concrete of the sidewalk a little ways back had nearly sent him sprawling on his face. Much to the amusement of Lavi, who had had to catch himself on a tree as Kanda stumbled forward. The redhead kept getting seized with bursts of giggling that could rival that of a 12 year old girl and Kanda wanted nothing else but to push him into the gutter. But then he’d have to deal with Lavi whining even more and he didn’t think Lenalee would approve him leaving his incredibly drunk friend in the street. Even if he was just as drunk.

Maybe not quite as drunk. Lavi probably wouldn’t remember much in the morning, he had had more than Kanda. But seeing as Kanda was a lightweight (or so said Lavi), it didn’t take quite as much to get him drunk and he had been tipsy after the second drink.

They had decided to go out in one last celebration of freedom before the new school year started and they were slammed with the workload of senior year. They had heard horror stories. Even Lavi was worried, even if he joked about it half the time. They didn’t know when they’d get the chance to drink themselves blind drunk next, especially with the classes they all had so they had decided that in the last couple days before the summer break ended, they’d get shitfaced.

It seemed like a good decision earlier in the night. Now Kanda was questioning his sanity. Why had he let Lavi drag him to that fifth bar? Why had he let Lavi convince him that _one more shot_ wouldn’t make a difference (one more tequila shot did in fact make a difference, in case you were wondering)? Because once they got to the point in which Lavi had nearly pushed Kanda into a mailbox, causing loud and judgmental laughter to erupt from a group of under aged girls across the street, he realized it was probably a bad idea that they had had that much to drink.

He decided to blame Lavi.

“Can’t we jus’ call Lena?” Lavi moaned into Kanda’s ear, whiskey breathe wafting over his face. The Japanese man made a face and again was tempted to push his friend into the gutter.

“She’ll yell at us,” Kanda growled. “You know this.” And she would. She would be angry at them for waking her up at 2:30 in the morning, trashed out of their minds and stumbling around the streets in the dead of night, even if they weren’t the only ones.

Lavi shuddered at the prospect of being chewed out by their other close friend. For a moment he was quiet before whining loudly, “Yuuuuuu.” He nearly pushed Kanda into a lamppost as he leaned closer, drawing a sharp curse out of the dark-haired college student’s mouth.

“What _now_?” he demanded. He was having enough trouble putting one foot in front of the other, let alone deal with Lavi’s annoying nagging and talkative nature. Why was this a good idea? He was never going out drinking with Lavi again (he knew this was a lie). “What d’ you want now?”

“I’m _hungry_ ,” he moaned mournfully in an overdramatic manner and just to emphasize his point he covered his stomach with a hand. A moment later he was pushing up his headband away from his eyes, looking at Kanda expectantly.

Kanda glared at him. “So? What d’ you wan’ me to do about that?” he asked, focusing on the next spot of light underneath a street lamp. They were still a ways off from the apartment they now shared, and Kanda just wanted to be there already. But they really were in no state to drive, even if they could find Lavi’s car where they left it by the first bar, and calling Lenalee was obviously out of the question. At least it was a straight shot from where they were now, and only required them to walk without turning until they hit the apartment complex in which they lived.

They had moved in together once their previous leases had run out, three months prior at the end of the spring semester. Sometimes Kanda questioned why he had thought it a good plan to live with the redhead, and then remembered that Lavi _was_ one of his best friends, that Lavi was one of the only people who could actually live with _him_ , and that living with a roommate was so much cheaper than a one-bedroom, which Kanda had been doing before. Lavi had wanted Lenalee to join them, because a three-bedroom made rent even better, but Komui, Lenalee’s overly protective brother, had put a stop to that even though he knew Lavi and Kanda and knew that Lenalee could hold her own. She lived just down the block though, so it worked out well enough when they wanted to hang out.

It had been six months since the night they exhumed the grave of the crazy ghost at the Campbell house, and they hadn’t talked much about it. In the beginning, they had discussed it, the two had asked Kanda questions about Allen and about what he and the polite ghost had spoken about during their meeting. Lavi did this while Kanda was dosed heavily with painkillers while still in the hospital, trying to get his friend to be as honest as possible. But even under the influence of strong painkillers, Kanda made no mention of the time he and Allen had shared, if it had even happened.

For a while after, Kanda couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. He couldn’t stop himself from focusing on what could have been, if Allen hadn’t, well, been a ghost. If he had had been a living person, from this time period with a heartbeat and a future. Sometimes he would daydream, and then he would catch himself and reprimand himself. He was no teenage girl fantasizing about that-one-boy-in-class. He wasn’t Lavi, who was chasing yet another beautiful person (this time a man with handsome olive skin and honey-colored eyes that, when Lavi  had first pointed him out, reminded Kanda of Neah for some strange reason). He didn’t chase, he didn’t swoon, he didn’t hunger for. But he did, for the ghost he could never have.

Lavi started taking him out after he had told his friend about the problem he was having. The idea was to make Kanda interact with the living and stop dwelling on a ghost they had known for two or so weeks, and hey, maybe get him a boyfriend or at least laid once in a while. And it worked, it distracted Kanda, and they fell into the habit during the summer to go out to the bars. Thank god they both had good jobs, or else paying for all of those drinks would have been impossible.

And school would put a stop to that, hence the last hurray for the summer.

“Feed me,” Lavi demanded and grabbed hold of Kanda’s ponytail, giving it a sharp tug. The tug made his head jerk back and he retaliated with a hand in Lavi’s face, pushing his friend away forcefully as Lavi wailed.

“I’m not your fucking babysitter,” Kanda snapped, righting himself from the shove he had given the redhead.

“Let’s stop an’ get somethin’ to eat,” Lavi continued. He would _not_ give up. Falling into step beside his friend, he slung an arm around Kanda’s neck once again. Kanda tried and failed to push him off.

“The fuck would be open?” Kanda snapped back, focusing on Lavi’s face. “It’s like three in the morning.”

“I dunno,” Lavi said unhelpfully.

Kanda didn’t know what was between here and their apartment, where they could get a bite to eat. Three months wasn’t all that long to figure out what was and wasn’t open at three in the morning. Especially since he didn’t want to chance turning onto a different street in search of food and get lost because of the state of inebriation the two were in. So they’d have to try and make do with something on this street. Which didn’t seem like much.

“Why are you so hungry? Can’t you jus’ wait?” he asked his friend.

“No I’m hungry _now_ , Yuu,” the redhead repeated.

Kanda squinted at him and leaned forward just a little. “Are you…high?” he asked as he just caught a whiff of something that had been hidden under the smell of alcohol clinging to Lavi. The eye-patched college student raised his hand and held his thumb and pointer an inch or so apart.

“Little bit,” he said with a wide grin. “And now I got the munchies!”

When had he snuck a joint in? Kanda had no recollection of Lavi disappearing to smoke at any point during the night, unless it had been in edible form, then he had no clue since Lavi ate a lot. He glared at his friend. Why did he make his life so difficult? Why was he hammered _and_ stoned? Wasn’t one or the other enough? No wonder Lavi was having trouble walking straight.

“Yuu, look, how ‘bout there?” the redhead piped up after a moment of silence as they continued down the street. Kanda looked up to see where he was pointing and saw, across the street, on the corner between 2nd street and 27th avenue was a small convenience store with a glowing OPEN sign hanging in its window. He was actually amazed that any light from inside could shine out through the windows as well, as they were plastered with advertisements for candy bars and microwave burritos and coffee and cigarettes and hotdogs.

Lavi grabbed his arm hard and tugged at it. “Oh _hotdogs_. I want a hotdog. I want five hotdogs. Let’s get hotdogs, Yuu.”

“Stop with the ‘Yuu’!” Kanda snapped and shook Lavi’s painful grip on his arm off. He didn’t know what it was with Lavi and hotdogs, but whenever the redhead was high he wanted them. And it was always five. He found it oddly specific. Not that he was thinking about that right now, he was too drunk to care. And at the mention of food, his stomach growled and made him realize that he, too, was hungry and yeah, probably should eat something after all that alcohol.

Kanda glanced both ways then crossed the street at a diagonal, Lavi following him close behind, much too excited for the hotdogs he would soon be able to eat (that is, if the store even had any at this hour).

The door jingled cheerfully as they entered and saw a slightly dingy and incredibly crowded store before them, shelves high with everything one would expect to see at a convenience store. Lavi made a beeline to the hot pass where hotdogs slowly rotated as Kanda picked his way through to the other side of the store.

“You two seem like you’ve had a fun night.” Kanda ignored the cashier’s statement, too focused on choosing what type of chips he wanted. Getting the correct type of chips was incredibly important for him while drunk, he didn’t want to make a mistake and end up buying one he then wouldn’t eat once out of the store. He could tell that the cashier, a younger man by the sound his voice, was amused with the two of them. It didn’t surprise him, he was sure Lavi was now laden with his five hotdogs and whatever else he had eyed.

Finally making his selection of chip, and grabbing a Coke after another moment’s thought, he turned to the counter. And nearly dropped the bottle of soda in his hand.

The young man standing behind the counter in a horrid red and yellow uniform looked…familiar. _Ghostly_ familiar. His hair was brown, as were his eyes and were wide-set within his pale face. Even his lips were familiar. Were the same. He hadn’t thought of Allen in several months, Lavi’s idea of partying having helped chase those thoughts from his mind. But here he was, standing in front of the spitting image (sans the silver hair and eyes, and the jagged scar that had marred the ghost’s face), smiling politely at him.

“Is something wrong, sir?” he asked politely, head cocking to the side.

His voice was even the same. He peered at the nametag pinned to the man’s chest and read _Allen_. They even had the same fucking name.

_Do you believe in resurrection? Well, maybe we’ll meet again_. Allen’s statement echoed in his ears, even after all these months. Was this really happening? How? How was this happening? He felt like he was seeing a ghost. A ghost of a ghost. _I must be drunker than I thought_. _Am I high too? Did Lavi sneak something into my drink?_

“You just remind me of someone,” Kanda grunted, eyeing him as he set the Coke and bag of chips down on the counter. Lavi appeared at his elbow and set down his five carefully wrapped hotdogs, a Redbull and a chocolate bar.

“Got my dog – Oh my god,” the redhead said, breaking off midsentence to stare wide-eyed and open mouthed at the cashier standing before them, now looking even more confused than seconds before. “It’s you. How is it you?”

Kanda elbowed him hard in the ribs.

“It’s me? I think you’re mistaking me for someone else. Your friend here said I looked familiar as well. An old friend perhaps?” Allen asked as he took the items and rang them up. Kanda stared down at the glass counter where multi-colored lottery tickets were being shown, listening to the young man’s voice. He couldn’t be much younger than they were. Maybe he even went to the same college. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he did, the University was a huge one and the chances of meeting any specific person was slim.

“Sort of friend? Dunno what to call him. Yeah, friend. He’s dead though,” Lavi said and Kanda tried to elbow his friend again in the ribs. This time Lavi stepped to the side just in time and walked into a gum rack, knocking half of the packets of gum off of it and onto the floor. “Shit.”

Allen blinked in shock. “Oh,” he said and watched as Lavi crouched down and picked up all of the gum. He made no move to help the redhead. He seemed shocked at what the two obviously very drunk men were saying. Then he smiled. “Will that be all?”

“No,” Kanda said as Lavi messily dumped all of the gum back into the rack. “I want your number too.”

His friend let out a startled little noise, something that sounded kind of like ‘oh shit Yuu’ and tugged at his arm. He pushed him away as he fished out his wallet. Allen’s eyes had widened somewhat, but that smile never really left his face. It was just like the ghost’s smile. Calm, comforting, nonjudgmental.

He didn’t know how this whole resurrection thing worked. This man was around their age, but Allen’s spirit had just been released from its curse six months prior. He was sure that he could figure something out, he was sure there was an explanation of how these things (for example, maybe time really wasn’t all that linear for souls). But being as intoxicated as he was, he wasn’t really coming up with anything. Besides the need to stay in contact with this young man. That he had decided.

For a long moment, Kanda held his breath, hand half extended with his money, eyes never leaving Allen’s gentle face. And then the brown-haired boy said, “sure,” and grabbed a piece of scrap paper and scribbled down his ten digit phone number. Then he took the money Kanda was offering and gathered his change. He picked up the paper with his number and together with the coins and dollars handed it back to the college student. “Have a good night and a safe trip home.”

Kanda stuffed his change in his wallet, along with that small piece of paper and put his wallet back into his pocket. Then he grabbed his Coke and chips as Lavi gathered his hotdogs, gaze flickering between Kanda and the cashier several times before grinning and heading out of the store. The long-haired young man sent several looks over his shoulder before the door blocked his view.

“I _knew_ there was sum’in’ up with you an’ Allen!” the redhead said through a mouthful of hotdog. After several more gulps and minimal chewing he had finished his first dog and started on his second. “I just knew it!”

He was grinning that stupid grin that always bothered the hell out of Kanda. He just wanted to hit him over the head with his soda bottle. “Just shut up and eat your hotdogs,” he snapped out, but he smiled to himself. _Well, maybe we’ll meet again. I’d like that._ He hadn’t expected that. He had given up all hope of having something with Allen. But this, this was a shock, but a wonderful one. Did this mean that during 19 th Century Allen’s time, there had been a Kanda, maybe somewhere in Japan at the same time? Maybe. Maybe there was another Neah and another Mana, somewhere else. Maybe Neah wouldn’t go insane.

“I’ll eat _your_ hotdog,” Lavi retorted then fell into a fit of giggles that resulted in him choking on the hotdog he had started to eat. He had stuffed the Redbull and chocolate bar in his hoody pocket, along with the other hotdogs he hadn’t yet gotten to.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” Kanda said and hit him hard on the back.

“Don’t _hit_ me. You’re so violent, Yuu,” Lavi said, finishing off his second hotdog. “But,” he said as he unwrapped the third, “… Allen and Kanda, sitting in a tree –” he spewed hotdog everywhere as he sang “– K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes ghosts, then comes dogs, then comes fucking up against a post!”

“Get the fuck back here,” Kanda shouted as Lavi sprinted away from him after that last line. He dropped his bottle of soda and chips in favor of catching up with his friend. He wouldn’t be drinking that for a while. Looking back at it, he was sure that the two of them must have looked fucking ridiculous because they were both still trashed and what seemed like sprinting to the two of them was probably lopsided staggering.

“Allen and Kanda, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I – ahh Yuu no stop!” Lavi yelped out as Kanda finally caught up with him and tacked him to the grass outside their apartment complex. “No my hotdogs! They’ll get crushed!” They would get crushed, seeing as Kanda had pinned him down on his stomach, but he didn’t care. “Uncle! Uncle! Uncleuncleuncle!”

Still, the idea had its appeal, but it probably wouldn’t be up against a post, as Lavi had said. He figured the redhead had chosen that word because it rhymed and he was impressed he actually was able to rhyme that drunk. He would be texting Allen, and maybe, just maybe, something more would become of it.

 - -

And the first time they kissed, it was just like the kissed shared with the ghost, nearly a year previous, and Kanda knew he wanted no one else, if Allen allowed it.

-End-


End file.
